01-10-2018, 12:12 AM
Episcopal Senior Communities Improve Resident Safety with Vocera Solution
Better staff communication, faster response times reported across multiple senior living facilities
January 08, 2018 08:03 AM Eastern Standard TimeSAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vocera Communications, Inc. (NYSE:VCRA), a recognized leader in clinical communication and workflow solutions, today announced that Episcopal Senior Communities (ESC) is improving staff communication and resident safety by using the Vocera Communication System at all six of its multi-level living communities in the San Francisco Bay Area.
For 50 years, ESC has delivered a variety of residential, memory care and aging services. The non-profit serves nearly 10,000 seniors through its community services programs that promote intellectual, physical, social and spiritual well-being. On a mission to consistently deliver a five-star experience for its residents, ESC sought to improve staff communication and response times. ESC selected the Vocera system to enable Wi-Fi communication and replace a fragmented system by integrating with the resident safety system in place throughout its communities.
“Vocera technology is like a Swiss army knife for communication,” said Chris Dana, vice president of information technology for ESC. “It connects all the different functions our people perform in our communities every day and all the technologies we rely on to complete them. Ultimately, it improves our ability to keep our residents healthy, safe, and happy. How do you put a value on that? If you ask a family member, it’s infinite.”
Taking safety to the next level, ESC integrated the Vocera system with the communities’ resident safety solution, which enables alarms and alerts to go directly to the right staff member’s Vocera badge or mobile device. Because every senior community is different, facility leaders worked closely with the service team at Vocera to design specific workflows to meet their needs. An alert might go to security in one community and skilled nursing in another. Each alert is delivered as both a voice and text message that include the resident’s first name, last initial, location, and the type of event.
“The integration of Vocera technology with our life-safety system is like having our own 911 center,” said Karen Kemp, application support manager at ESC. “By eliminating the delays once caused by manual dispatching and unreliable radio links, it lets us respond to resident needs faster and more intelligently. When I talk with staff in different departments across the communities, I’m told over and over by employees there is no way they’ll ever give up their Vocera devices.”
While workflows may vary, users do not. Every staff member at every community uses the Vocera solution, including the clinical team, security, maintenance, housekeeping, the IT department and executive directors. Improvements in staff communication and collaboration have made it much easier for employees to coordinate resident activities, exchange information, and get assistance. With Vocera, team members can locate each other no matter where they are or what they’re doing, from one end of campus to the other. They no longer need to walk to the nurses’ station to check messages or drop what they are doing to pick up a phone or a radio. Additionally, the Santa Rosa location plans to integrate its nurse call with the Vocera system.
“It’s exciting to see a multi-level senior living community using mobile technology and robust integrations to improve the safety and well-being of its residents,” said Brent Lang, president and CEO of Vocera. “Episcopal Senior Communities is an inspiring example of how Vocera solutions can help improve the lives of many people in many different environments.”
About Episcopal Senior Communities (ESC)
Episcopal Senior Communities (ESC) is a California non-profit public benefit corporation that is more than 50 years old. Its mission is to cultivate and build healthy communities with a continuum of residential and innovative aging services that actively promote intellectual, physical, social, and spiritual well-being. ESC’s primary business is to own and operate retirement communities known as Life Plan or Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs). Currently, there are six communities, located in Pacific Grove, Oakland, Los Gatos, Santa Rosa, Palo Alto and San Francisco. Each of these communities holds a Certificate of Authority (COA) granted by the California Department of Social Services allowing it to enter into contractual agreements that promise care for the remainder of the resident’s lives. For more about information about ESC, visit www.jtm-esc.org.
About Vocera
The mission of Vocera Communications, Inc. is to simplify and improve the lives of healthcare professionals and patients, while enabling hospitals to enhance quality of care and operational efficiency. In 2000, when the company was founded, we began to forever change the way care teams communicate. Today, Vocera continues to offer the leading platform for clinical communication and workflow. More than 1,400 hospitals and health systems around the world have selected our solutions for care teams to text securely using smartphones or make calls with our hands-free, wearable Vocera Badge. Interoperability between Vocera and more than 120 clinical systems helps reduce alarm fatigue, speed up staff response times, and improve patient care, safety and experience. In addition to healthcare, Vocera is at home in luxury hotels, aged care facilities nuclear facilities, libraries, retail stores and more. Vocera makes a difference in any industry where workers are on the move and need to connect instantly with team members and access resources or information quickly. In 2017, Vocera made the list of Forbes 100 Most Trustworthy Companies in America. Learn more at www.vocera.com, and follow @VoceraComm on Twitter.
The Vocera logo is a trademark of Vocera Communications, Inc. Vocera® is a trademark of Vocera Communications, Inc. registered in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other trademarks appearing in this release are the property of their respective owners.
Contacts
Vocera Communications, Inc.
Shanna Hearon, 865-769-2028
shearon@vocera.com