Hunt Regional Medical Center Improves Patient Experience with Vocera

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Vocera Communications, Inc. (NYSE:VCRA), a recognized leader in clinical communication and workflow solutions, today announced that Hunt Regional Medical Center has improved patient engagement and satisfaction by standardizing nurse leader rounding and follow-up calls with Vocera technology. After implementing Vocera Rounds and Vocera Care Calls solutions, the 114 bed hospital reported a 13 percent increase in overall Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) rating and an eight percent increase in the “likelihood to recommend” domain.

Hunt Regional in Northeast Texas is a long-time Vocera customer, using the hands-free Vocera system in clinical workflows throughout the hospital. Because of this trusted relationship and improvements in care team communication, nurse leaders looked to the company to help strengthen patient partnerships, improve engagement, and increase care plan compliance. In 18 months, Hunt Regional completed nearly 22,000 patient rounds and 13,000 follow-up calls using Vocera technology. More than 200,000 data points from 21,000 patients and families were captured to drive experience improvements and identify high-performing staff members.

“The real-time request-tracking capabilities and service recovery interventions made possible with the Vocera technology have made a huge difference in our processes,” said Debby Clack, Chief Nursing Officer at Hunt Regional. “We are able to expedite our responses to patient needs, which has dramatically improved satisfaction and the overall healthcare experience.”

Prior to implementing Vocera Rounds, Hunt Regional used a paper-based method to log patients’ comments during leader rounding. Now, nurses use the Vocera mobile application on iPads, which makes it much easier and quicker to address patient feedback, track potential trends, identify gaps in workflows, and report performance metrics. Because it has proven to be an effective engagement and experience tool, Hunt Regional uses Vocera Rounds to also capture employee feedback and monitor staff satisfaction.

Nurses at Hunt Regional who conduct mobile rounds also make patient follow-up calls 24-72 hours post hospitalization, creating a seamless care experience that is managed by Vocera technology. “It’s comforting for our patients to hear a familiar voice on the phone – someone who understands their entire experience, and is now checking-in on them,” said Clack.

The Vocera Care Calls solution enables these nurses to have meaningful conversations with each patient because they have access to the verbatim comments and concerns securely captured in the Vocera Rounds application. This information, in the patient’s own words, helps the caller address any potential readmission risks noted in the application, follow-up on any questions asked during the hospital stay, and close the communication loop.

“Listening to and understanding patients are essential to improving their experiences, compliance and outcomes,” said Brent Lang, president and CEO of Vocera. “Hunt Regional is a great example of how communication technology can hardwire industry best practices to improve patient engagement, and extend compassion and care beyond the walls of the hospital.”

About Hunt Regional Medical Center

Hunt Regional Medical Center, a large regional hospital based in Greenville, Texas, is part of Hunt Regional Healthcare. The medical center has been providing healthcare to the community for more than 40 years and offers an extensive list of outpatient and diagnostic services from surgery to cancer care to open imaging. For more about information about Hunt Regional Medical Center, visit www.huntregional.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 150 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.

Vocera Communications, Inc.
Shanna Hearon, 865.769.2028
shearon@vocera.com