Better staff communication, faster response times reported across multiple senior living facilities
Monday, January 8, 2018
SAN JOSE, Calif.
SAN 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), now Covia, 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 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