Customer Press Releases

To Boldly Go Where Star Trek Has Gone Before...

Nottinghamshire, U.K. (February 9, 2007) – Star Trek is taking over King’s Mill Hospital – in the shape of a futuristic new communications device that is transforming patient care. That’s because the Nottinghamshire hospital has become the first in the East Midlands – and one of the first in the country – to issue staff with a revolutionary wireless voice communicator just like the ones used in television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. And hospital bosses are already hailing the space-age gadget a potential lifesaver.

Currently more than 1,100 hospital workers – from receptionists and porters to doctors, nurses and consultants – are communicating via the voice-controlled badge created by U.S. firm Vocera.

Operating over a wireless network, staff simply say a person’s name, department or role to be automatically connected to the right person and can speak to them just like on a normal telephone.

Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, initially trialled the system 12 months ago among 75 users in accident and emergency, radiology and medical admissions departments as one of only two U.K. hospitals piloting the device.

Now, it is now being rolled out Trust-wide – including at Newark Hospital later this month – and with 1,140 users at King’s Mill it’s the biggest installation of this type of system in any U.K. hospital.

Staff on all wards including A&E, neo-natal, intensive care and paediatrics routinely use the gadget, which weighs less than a few grams and is worn around the neck using a lanyard or attached to a lapel via a clip. It is set to completely replace the hospital’s pager system over the next 12 months.

As well as making it easier for nurses to find and get advice from doctors, it will help save lives by enabling medical staff to make immediate contact in an emergency.

The space age device also frees-up more time for doctors and nurses by allowing them to communicate while still doing their job, instead of spending precious minutes finding a telephone that isn’t already in use, contacting each other using old-fashioned pager systems, known as ‘bleeps’, or walking from one area to another to find colleagues. King’s Mill’s own research found that, on average, it took members of staff 6 ½ minutes to get hold of a colleague using a telephone.

Now, getting hold of the right person can take just a few seconds.

And by using the badges, staff at King’s Mill will be able to make immediate contact with colleagues at Newark Hospital and vice-versa.

Phil Bolton, trauma and orthopaedic nurse specialist at King’s Mill Hospital, said: “We often need a second opinion from a colleague and previously, unless they were close at hand, we’d have to bleep them to make contact. The Vocera system enables us to do that without leaving the patient’s side.”

Carl Miller, superintendent radiographer at the hospital, said: “With Vocera I can continue to x-ray patients even when a problem arises. I’m told about the issue immediately via the badge and can think of the best solution while I continue to work. So multi-tasking has become a reality.”

Jeffrey Worrall, the Trust’s Chief Executive, said: “In Accident and Emergency we have been able to move patients more quickly into admitting departments, using the badge to communicate between A&E and site co-ordination staff."

And as well as transforming patient care, this technology can also improve the way we provide our services and help boost efficiency."

“But ultimately it’s about what’s best for our patients and one day there will be an incident where using Vocera will help save a life. I have absolutely no doubt about that.”

Notes to editors:

There are several benefits of using Vocera rather than pagers and telephones including:

Better and faster communication across the site
Users can receive calls without needing to get to a telephone and without discontinuing whatever they are currently doing
Users can make and receive calls anywhere in the hospital where the system has coverage
Calls can be made to groups of people without the need to know individual names
Messages can be left and retrieved.

Issued by the Communications Department, telephone 01623 672294. Please contact it for further information/interviews/photos.

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