EXTENSION, INC., a provider of clinical workflow solutions, revealed several enhancements within the VA, aimed at improving communications between nurses, patients, and other healthcare professionals.
The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provides veterans benefits and services by serving America’s service members.
"The VA serves our national heroes -- the men and women in uniform. Many of these patients have unique medical needs such as those that become disabled or wounded in active duty. EXTENSION equips the healthcare professionals serving these patients with contextual clinical alerts - delivered to their preferred communication device -- which allows them to adequately address the specific needs of patients," Rick Williams, director - Public Healthcare Sector at EXTENSION said in a press release.
EXTENSION’s said the most common workflows requested by public sector clients include; nurse call alerts, patient monitor alerts, critical lab result notifications, HIPAA-compliant text messaging, full report availability notifications, and staff assignment.
EXTENSION has been enabling VA facilities to use a variety of devices to improve staff communication and to reduce the bottlenecks created by traditional communication tools. The result is improved cross-departmental communication and reduced clinical errors and costs. The company integrates with numerous nurse call systems via standard interfaces (TAP, HL7) and other medical devices and health information systems including VistA - the VA's own proprietary Electronic Health Record. EXTENSION's Device Messaging solution is gaining a lot of interest within the VA. The solution enables clinicians to exchange secure, text-based messages without compromising protected health information (PHI).
Moreover, EXTENSION's device-inclusive platform is noted to instantly connect clinicians on their preferred communications tool, which includes Android and iPhone smartphones and tablets, Cisco, Polycom, and Ascom VoIP phones, and Vocera communication badges and phones.
EXTENSION said in its release that it plans to announce more endpoints in 2012. The company also indicated about its plan to showcase its solutions at the Annual HIMSS Conference and Exhibition to be held in Las Vegas, February 21-23, and the ANCC National Magnet Conference in Los Angeles from October 10-12.
The company recently hired a dedicated public sector representative who is focused on better understanding the clinical workflow needs of staff within the VA and DoD and ensuring their specific workflow challenges are solved.
Meenakshi Shankar is a HealthTechZone contributor. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Chris DiMarco
