Critical Communication on Tampa Bay Medical News

Critical Communication

By: LYNNE JETER

Voalté iPhone Application Developed to Ease Nursing Crisis

SARASOTA—When Trey Lauderdale was the southeast regional sales manager for Emergin, a developer of high-tech communications solutions for healthcare facilities, he envisioned a network of time-saving applications for medical professionals. His “a-ha” moment centered on March 6, 2008, the day Apple released its much-anticipated iPhone Software Development Kit.

“I knew we had a real opportunity to break down barriers that had hindered healthcare providers for years,” said Lauderdale.

Soon after the rollout, Lauderdale traveled to the Apple World Wide Developer’s Conference in San Francisco, where he met software guru Ben King. Several strategy sessions later, both decided to leave their salaried posts to establish Voalté with one mission in mind: to provide healthcare professionals with high-tech, easy-to-navigate applications to communicate more efficiently and effectively on the job. Their well-established plan hit a snag in late 2008, when the national economy nose-dived.

“We were told over and over again that we had a brilliant idea … the intellectual resources to develop the idea … customers lined up … but we couldn’t get startup venture capital no matter what,” said Lauderdale, who watched his life savings dwindle as he and King tried to figure out their next step. “Investors were telling us we were too young (Lauderdale is 27; King is 28) and inexperienced. I’d all but resigned myself that I’d have to go back to work.”

Then the duo met Rob Campbell, a former Apple and Microsoft executive who had developed PowerPoint among many successful programs. More importantly, Campbell had helmed several successful startup companies. “I think I’ve got one more in me,” Campbell told Lauderdale. “But you’ll need to come to Sarasota.”

In November 2008, Voalté was officially established; King and Lauderdale relocated from Miami.

Home Base

“When we got to Sarasota, we made it a point to talk to as many healthcare professionals as we could,” said Lauderdale, vice president of innovation for Voalté. “We knew that nurse workloads nationwide had increased due to staffing shortages, resulting in dissatisfaction levels among nurses that are three to five times higher than the average worker. We knew that nurses had to cover more ground than ever … and spend time seeking elusive information. Their career becomes frustrating. They lack the time to do what they joined the profession to do–provide quality patient care.”

Rolling Out Nationwide

By the end of January, Sarasota Memorial will have added to the Voalté One Solution pilot program three additional hospital units—intensive care, operating room, and cardiovascular step-down—bringing the total number of devices to 100, and users to 600.

Voalté is rolling out the Voalté One system nationwide, with an estimated turnkey cost of $300,000 for a 150-bed hospital, and another $50,000 to $60,000 a year for maintenance and continued round-the-clock support.

“As a small startup, we can’t build on everything, so we’re focusing on two to three exceptional high-tech solutions like Voalté One,” said Lauderdale. “We’d like to evolve into a position of that of a traffic cop, to avoid the glut of programs leading to information overload … by making sure a lower-priority nurse alert for a patient needing ice doesn’t override a higher-priority ‘code blue’ alert. Our longer-term vision involves innovation and being a thought leader working with hospitals and other providers in the medical community.”

David Pryor, MD, senior vice president at Ascension Health, had noted in a recent report about healing the healthcare staffing shortage: “There’s a component of communication and teamwork that must be present in the environment in order to provide high-quality care and retain staff. Nurses are providing frontline care and nurse turnover is directly related to effective communication on the floor.”

Danielle Reed, charge nurse at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, admitted that it’s time consuming “when you’re called and someone else could’ve taken care of the problem. There’s always an issue of nurses not having enough time for bedside care.”

It was evident that clear and accurate communication was crucial to delivering high quality patient care, said Lauderdale.

“I knew there had to be a better way,” he said. “I wanted to provide a complete communication solution at the point-of-care on one mobile platform.”

Platform Potential

As an early iPhone adopter, Lauderdale had recognized the potential of integrating the device into the hospital environment, and was confident that an innovative communication platform such as the iPhone would improve point-of-care communication and put vital information in the palm of the hands of nurses.

“As enthusiastic as they were about the concept, nurses were adamant about telling us they didn’t need another device, in addition to pagers and other work-related devices,” said Lauderdale. “Some of them also had a Blackberry or other smartphone. They didn’t want something even more cumbersome.”

After working closely with engineers to come up with one device to provide voice, alarm and text services, the company unveiled Voalté One Solution in a pilot program, part of a development partnership with Sarasota Memorial Hospital.

Initially, Voalté provided 25 devices for the hospital’s 48-bed respiratory step-down unit, used by 100 nurses system-wide. After each one clocked into work, they picked up an iPhone.

When the Voalté team—dressed in black scrubs, accented by the company’s pink and green logo—prepared for training the staff on how to use the iPhone application, they were ready to hear from some nurses that might not believe they were tech-savvy enough to manipulate the new devices.

“The demographics of caregivers in the Sarasota area show they are a little older than the average,” said Lauderdale. “Sure enough, we had one nurse who said she didn’t even email … she told us ‘technology is not for me!’ But we’ve got a pretty good training program in place. In addition to making the devices very user-friendly, we make training a very fun event. An iPhone is a very intuitive device with a Facebook feel to the application.”

The first night Voalté One Solution went live, the same nurse who had been reluctant to adopt the new technology was thrilled to have her fears allayed, especially when she needed to reach the floor pharmacist.

“Within 15 minutes,” said Lauderdale, “the nurse had the meds she needed for a patient in room 303.”

Instant feedback from the nurses allowed Lauderdale and King to collaborate with engineers to fine-tune features.

“Early on, we received feedback from one nurse to make the font bigger, and when we did, another nurse said the font was too big. She wanted to be able to read everything on one screen, so we compromised with an adaptable font,” said Lauderdale.

Improved Response

Overall, nurses embraced the technology, said P.J. Floyd, associate chief nursing officer at Sarasota Memorial. “The Voalté One,” she said, “makes them better able to respond quickly to patient’s needs.”

Lauderdale pointed to a benefit of the Voalté One pilot program: a dramatic reduction in intercom chatter. The results of a private study after the implementation of the Voalté application at Sarasota Memorial revealed a 78 percent drop in overhead paging.

“I’d absolutely recommend the Voalté solution. Noise reduction is a huge factor,” said Reed. “Before Voalté, we had to overhead page whenever the phone rang. Now we can quietly and quickly text the right person without disrupting the patients.”

Lauderdale emphasized the solution is “not just wireless telephones for nurses … not just two-way paging.”

“Voalté is redefining communications at point of care while enhancing nurse satisfaction,” he said.