Vail Health, a nonprofit community health system headquartered in Vail, Colorado, is using technology from Spok to improve communication among its care team members.
More specifically, the organization is utilizing Spok Care Connect, a full clinical communication platform that integrates with a hospital’s existing workflows. The tool provides directory details, staff contact preferences, secure texting and on-call schedules, among other features.
Vail continues to expand its use of Spok Care Connect across its enterprise, which includes a 56-bed community hospital, two urgent care clinics, various medical centers and clinics, Howard Head Sports Medicine and Shaw Cancer Center.
The Colorado organization started working with Spok in 2017. With the company’s offering, Vail has been able to automate processes for on-call scheduling and code calls and improve care team collaboration and communication.
“A huge benefit we have seen is that clinicians can act faster because Spok delivers the information they need, when they need it,” Vail CMIO and CIO Darrell Messersmith said in a statement. “We have been able to consolidate disparate systems into a single system of action, which has ultimately improved patient care.”
As for Spok, the Springfield, Virginia-based organization recently collaborated with Amazon Web Services, which is powering its cloud-native communication platform. The first phase of Spok’s new set of solutions includes Spok Go (an application for care team messaging), Spok Conduct (a tool focused on clinical alerts and alarm management) and Spok Navigate (which enables operators to help patients and caregivers navigate their health system experience).
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Various other entities are also tackling communication as it relates to clinicians and providers.
One such company is Halo Communications, a startup out of Cincinnati, Ohio. Rather than utilizing pagers, clinicians can leverage the company’s cloud-based platform to securely communicate and access the information they need. Earlier this year, Halo launched its patient coordinator product, which allows doctors and nurses to focus mobile and collective care around each patient. In addition to the patient coordinator tool, Halo’s platform includes a variety of other features, such as secure messaging, a schedule management tool and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) calling.
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