Ascom Lands Contract for Hundreds of Smartphones to Replace Pagers
Ascom UK has won a contract to supply more than 300 of its next-generation smartphones to replace pagers at a leading hospital Trust in the north of England.
Clinicians believe the move will allow them to spend more time with patients and give better care.
Ascom will deploy 330 of its new Myco 3 smartphone, 45 Myco 2 and its Unite AlertTrac critical messaging software at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, which employs 4,500 staff across Harrogate and Ripon hospitals and the wider community. The contract comes as Health Secretary Matt Hancock has pledged to phase out the use of pagers in the NHS by 2021.
The technology, being deployed across all clinical areas including outpatients, will enable the Trust to send customised alerts and critical messages to clinical and support staff on the move so that they can respond more quickly to emergency calls. It means that the right staff and equipment can be dispatched to each incident.
The Ascom technology will enable access to WebV, the Trust’s own electronic patient record system, and integration with Patientrack, an electronic observations system that will send alerts and crucial clinical information to the Myco devices when patients are showing signs of deterioration. The devices will also be linked to the Trust’s telephone system, so calls can be put straight through to clinicians.
Former paediatrics nurse Robin Pitts, who is the Trust’s clinical IT and change manager said: “We chose Ascom because we need to move away from devices that perform only one task, to technology that improves and speeds up communication.
