Replacing Crash Bleeps – The Time Has Come

The following is a guest article by Hannah Parrish, Marketing Executive at Alertive
Improving coordination among hospital staff helps reduce the risk of communication errors (70% of sentinel events are caused by poor communication), positively impacts patient wait times, and improves staff morale. The traditional practice of using bleeps to respond to emergency calls, often referred to as crash calls, is now being replaced by a digital alternative with the benefit of data to evidence the improvements that can be delivered.
The Shift from Bleeps to Digital Messaging
John Wintour-Pittom, Head of Ops for Telecoms at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust, shares insights into their successful transition. He states, “In late November 22, we started dual running by broadcasting emergencies on Alertive and the legacy systems simultaneously. Alertive was faster at broadcasting and gave the Switchboard confidence that the roles required for the emergency were receiving messages through the acknowledgment feature.”
The dual-running phase, which continued until February 23 for one acute site and June 23 for the other six sites, marked the achievement of becoming bleep-free. Wintour-Pittom emphasizes the practical advantages, “Our Operators also love that if they ever had to evacuate, they pick up their departmental mobiles and can activate emergency teams from those devices on the move.”
Helen Pardoe, CCIO at The P...

Source: EMR and HIPAA - January 4, 2024 Category: Information Technology Authors: Guest Author Tags: Clinical Communication and Patient Experience Health IT Company Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System Alertive Bleeps Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust Digital Messaging Hannah Parrish Helen Pardoe Imperial College Health Source Type: blogs