5 Steps to Smartphone Messaging
Follow the SMG3Rx Roadmap
to a Better Smartphone Strategy
Step 1: Map the Ways Your Hospital Staff is Communicating
Map the constituencies and workflows that will benefit most from smartphones.
- Assess current capabilities with current applications and devices in use
- Examine if you have an enterprise-wide system that efficiently allows for both voice and data communications
- Recognize potential room for advancement from outdated or consumer-grade technology
Step 2: Identify Your Key Requirements for Smartphone Communications
Determine your must-haves for communication among staff at your hospital.
- Include reliability and roaming to prevent dropped calls
- Plan for technical and workflow-related security measures
- Consider employing a third-party mobile device management
Step 3: Pinpoint the Applications and Systems
Needed to Enable Key Workflows
Determine the smartphone technology needs of your key users
- Identify the systems and applications that users access
- Have quick access to EHR data and be able to safely share it
- Reduce the time and increase the accuracy of the patient information recording process
Step 4: Determine How You Will Manage Alerts and Alarms
Manage alarms to help clinicians avoid alarm fatigue
- Plan for alarms to be transmitted to smartphones that ensure patient safety and prevents alarm fatigue
- Be able to distinguish between critical and noncritical alarms
- Consider employing a middleware company to manage the efficiency of the alarm management system.
Step 5: Plan How You Want Your Rollout to Proceed
Set concrete short, medium, and long-term goals and establish a timeframe fo your smartphone deployment
- A “Big Bang” is an approach for an instantaneous changeover over the entire network
- A phased approach allows a group of users to receive devices before other groups throughout the hospital
- Understand the pros and cons of different implementation strategies before solidifying a choice