Voice Recording Technology Improves Patient Handoff Process

By keeping the records for this length of time, Ingalls ensures that in the event of a near miss or an error, the report is on file and can be listened to again.

Involvement with other departments
The OptiVox technology is also beneficial when it comes to patient throughput and alerting an area of the hospital to expect a patient from the ED, says Mikos.

Prior to implementing the technology, ED nurses had difficulty reaching nurses on other floors and units.

"We tried all sorts of things, from bringing the patient up to a certain floor to attempting to keep calling back and forth," says Mikos.

Now, with OptiVox, when a nurse needs to transfer a patient from the ED to another unit, he or she simply voices the report into OptiVox and the system automatically sends a voice message to a designated unit telephone number. That patient's report is then available for the receiving nurse.

The ED nurse also includes his or her name and telephone number in the event the receiving nurse has any questions.

"This has really taken away the bottlenecks that were created when giving reports," says Mikos. "This gives us a precise process to user report and helps expedite the patients out."

Savings and positive thoughts
One of Mikos' goals when implementing the new technology was decreasing incremental overtime. "With the new process, we saw a great reduction in overtime," she says. "And the savings helped pay for the technology."

However, Mikos warns that there has to be a strong message sent from the leadership team about incremental overtime and backing the system.

"There are some nurses that aren't so in tune with us managing incremental overtime," says Mikos. "You have to monitor the time and send a message so no one resorts back to the old ways of recording incremental overtime."

Overall, Ingalls staff members have been pleased with the new handoff process, and even the unit secretaries noted how much the noise level decreased, Mikos says.

Once, the halls were filled with nurses chattering, trying to catch up on reports. Now, the halls are noticeably more quiet because nurse-to-nurse communication for handoff reports has been replaced by telephones and computers, says Mikos. "The healing environment has improved tremendously."