Healthcare Technology - Products and Platform

For innovative healthcare, big things are happening in Florida. BayCare is a patient-centred, nonprofit healthcare system with 3,900 beds. It’s also a Cerner Reference Site and one of the largest employers in West Central Florida.

BayCare’s primary goal is to deliver compassionate care to the community they serve. What makes them unique is they are equally focused on caring for their employees — providing them with innovative, modern tools to do their jobs in fast-paced environments.

BayCare has deployed more than 6,000 iPhone devices to improve communications, simplify processes and update legacy systems — saving care teams valuable time that they can now spend on patient care. According to Scott Patterson, BayCare’s vice president and chief technology officer, “Our investment in Apple technology told our teams, ‘We care about you and will invest in the best tools to help you provide cutting-edge, compassionate patient care.’”

Before the switch to Apple, care teams were using pagers, cordless IP phones and fragmented legacy systems. BayCare chose to invest in iPhone for its operating system’s advanced privacy features and vast app ecosystem, which quickly turns iPhone into any instrument that doctors, nurses and ancillary services need it to be — a barcode scanner, a secure messaging app, a calculator and so much more.

The integration into BayCare’s existing software and Cisco network with Fastlane, which minimizes congestion and prioritizes clinically critical apps on the same network, was seamless — the results have been incredible. With a wholly revamped communications system based on Stryker’s Vocera Edge app on iPhone, team communications are unified, modernized and private. Use of encrypted role-based messaging alone grew from 1 million to 36 million per year — saving valuable time over voice calls. And more precise communications combat notification fatigue.

Everyone can see team assignments per patient along with each team member’s status, making it easy to quickly find who’s available. And there’s no need to solely rely on a workstation on wheels. Workflow tasks, digital alerts, reminders and patient data are now easily accessible on iPhone, so nurses can update conditions, see lab results and record observations — right at the bedside, or wherever they may be.

“We now have more time to spend caring for patients,” says Nicole Gitney, director of nursing informatics. “Apple technology has helped us to adopt additional care workflows, such as nurse leader rounding and virtual care.”

Offering more flexibility and reducing the burden on nurses and staff is important to BayCare. They hold forums with teams to get new ideas and feedback on their needs that technology can help solve. “The move to iPhone has increased efficiency, productivity, and employee satisfaction,” says Nicole. “From easy onboarding and training to more secure, smart, streamlined communication.”