How Healthcare Two-Way Radios Are Improving Patient Care
Two-way radios may seem old school, but they should be one of the first technologies you embrace in a hospital setting. Instead of phoning a nurse’s station and having to have a medical professional tracked down, two-way radios offer instant connections.
In an emergency lockdown, two-way radios are critical tools. They’re equally important in quarantines, emergency evacuations, and major weather events. Patients’ needs cannot go ignored, but it’s often hard to remember every minute detail in times of high stress. Improve the communications between your doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff and improve patient care.
How Does Two-Way Radio Help?
Why would you want two-way radio? The most important reason is that your doctors, nurses, administrators, and other essential personnel can communicate in real time. If a nurse is with a patient in a flooding room, she needs to be able to alert security and arrange for a speedy evacuation. Two-way radios make it easy for her to connect to security or other medical professionals to arrange a safe evacuation for the patient.
The security and safety of your patients are essential in a hospital. In larger cities, there can be issues with security breaches in cases of domestic assault or gang rivalries. Two-way radios enhance security, which helps keep patients safe during a security breach. With two-way communications, doctors or nurses can immediately lock down a wing to keep intruders out and remain in a lockdown until the all-clear is received from a trusted security officer.
Another reason to have two-way radios is one that’s seen an increase in the past few years. Ransomware can shut down a hospital’s computer systems. If the phone lines and intercoms are linked to the internet, it can make communications difficult. Two-way radios resolve this issue. Doctors and nurses can talk to each other about a patient’s care needs and not have to worry about systems being offline.
Weather patterns are changing. Buffalo, New York, had back-to-back storms that dumped six or more feet of snow by the time the storm had ended. This type of weather event impacts communications if lines go down and the power goes out. Two-way radios ensure healthcare facilities like hospitals and nursing homes can keep communicating, no matter what the weather is doing.
There’s been a major traffic incident due to icy road conditions. Ambulances and EMTs are doing all they can, but they’re low on manpower. You send a few doctors and nurses into the field to help out. Stay in touch with them via two-way radio. They can assess patients in the field and let you know exactly what they’ve done and what the patient will need upon arrival. As the patient arrives, your doctors and nurses are already prepared to take over care from the EMTs.
You may not even need two-way radios for emergencies and lockdowns. Sometimes, it’s just helpful to have an instant connection to other hospital or medical office staff. You’ve just treated a child with a stomach ache, and that child threw up. Instead of calling housekeeping, not getting an answer, and then having to page them to call you back, you can reach a cleaner instantly through two-way.
What Are Some of the Best Two-Way Radios
Your final choice depends on what you need. Take a closer look at the best brands of two-way radios for healthcare.
- L3Harris
- Motorola Solutions
- Tait Communications
- Vertex Standard
L3Harris has several models available, but the XL Converge 200P is popular with healthcare due to the advanced noise cancellation technology. It has a battery life of 10 hours and meets MIL-SPEC standards for fluid contamination.
Motorola Solutions MOTOTRBO is a line of portable, mobile two-way radios. The MOTOTRBO Ion is a great choice in the field of healthcare as it offers data and device security, application security, and a touchscreen interface for quick and easy use.
Encryption is an essential component of a Tait two-way radio. The TP9800 P25 Series operate on UHF, VHF, and 700/800 MHz. It’s a shock-absorbing model, which is ideal in a busy environment where it may get dropped or bumped into an exam table or patient bed.
Finally, the Vertex S24 is a budget two-way that’s compact and easy to carry in a pocket or clipped to a jacket. It has a low battery indicator and emergency alert features.
Which of these is best for your needs? It’s important to have a professional go over your building’s layout, go over your patient care practices, and design a customized plan to ensure you get two-way radios that make your work effective and efficient while providing the utmost in patient care.
Introducing Orchestrate for Comprehensive Hospital and Medical Facility Management
PMC’s Orchestrate interface combines Safe Hospitals video, voice, and access control technologies. Actions within a hospital can be unpredictable if there’s a mass casualty due to weather or other circumstances. Intense storms may knock out power, internet, or phones, and you can have ransomware knocking systems offline for hours if not days. For all of those reasons, you have to have the latest technology supporting your hospital, and two-way radios are a big part of that.
You need to have service for strong signals around your building. Not only are we specialists in antennas and amplifiers to go with your two-way radios, but we also have partnerships with all of the major carriers to establish in-building service that doesn’t fail at the worst possible time.
Security can monitor parking lots and entries and alert personnel if there are potential issues.
If power outages or other issues knock out intercom systems, two-way radio ensures your key personnel can communicate without disruptions and signal drops. Patients do not get overlooked and potential threats are better managed. But not all two-way radios will suit your needs. That’s why it’s important to talk to a professional.
Healthcare workers are bound by HIPAA rules. Patient privacy is everything, so your two-way radios cannot be easy to access. Systems that have encryption options also have to be at the top of your list.
You need to make sure you work with an expert in two-way radios for hospital and healthcare personnel. PMC Wireless was founded in 1988 and has led the way in public safety, school, and healthcare communications. We’re experts in connecting administrators, doctors, and nurses and ensuring that two-way radios are not affected by interference or static.
Reach us by phone or email to talk about your medical facility’s current technology and learn how you can heighten patients’ safety with the use of two-way radios. Let us design a customized solution that improves upon your current system.
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