Ineffective communication and workflows in healthcare can have life-altering consequences. It can lead to compromised patient safety, increased risk of adverse events, and diminished trust in care delivery. Reliable, real-time communication is essential to ensuring the best possible outcomes for patients and supporting clinicians in their workflow.

Take the example of a major teaching hospital and tertiary referral centre in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. Faced with an outdated nurse call system, the hospital’s perioperative services department was struggling to improve response time and efficiency.

Case for change

With 19 operating theatres, each supported by specialist Operating Theatre Assistants (OTA), the hospital previously relied on outdated call bell lights that only indicated where OTA assistance was required and nothing more.

As a result, OTA’s spent significant time walking back and forth between retrieving equipment and returning to the theatre (or so called ‘sneaker time’), resulting in lost care minutes, missing out on revenue and increased staff dissatisfaction. Frequent door openings also lead to disruptions to the sterile environment, causing temperature and humidity fluctuations that could impact operating room stability.

The hospital decided to partner with Rauland and make Responder nurse call and workflow solution the backbone of their perioperative department efficiency journey. The implementation aimed to address core challenges and streamline operations to:

• Improve operating theatre workflow efficiency by reducing staff sneaker time
• Enable detailed, multi-levelled communication between different care teams
• Allow perioperative patients to easily contact nurses with a single button press

Quiet environment enhancing perioperative efficiency

The implementation prioritised reducing the need for multiple phone calls and repeated paging – enabling seamless, automated clinical workflows that enhance efficiency across perioperative care.

Further supporting the transformation, silent visual annunciator TVs displayed tiered messaging throughout the facility – improving workflow visibility, coordination and alarm noise reduction.

Only escalated or unanswered calls were routed to supervisors’ mobile devices, helping minimise unnecessary disruptions.

Delivering care efficiencies

In just six months, the Responder nurse call and workflow solution refined the department’s care operations and help them realise:

• Faster emergency response time: 100% of emergency calls responded within 25 seconds
• Rapid Staff Assistance: 100% of staff assist calls responded within 25 seconds, with a median response time of 6 seconds
• Reduction in theatre downtime: 19,000 operating assistant calls initiated, with 81% answered within 10 minutes
• Significantly improved staff efficiency and patient care

Ongoing Optimisation

As the current healthcare scenario continues to evolve, our team remains committed to optimising and enhancing the user experience for patients and care staff at this hospital.

Ready to see how Responder can transform your perioperative theatre efficiency? Get in touch today.

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