Healthcare Technology Featured Article

February 22, 2011

Healthcare Technology and News: Avaya Announces Collaboration Solutions to Enhance Patient Care


Avaya, a provider of business collaboration systems, software and services, announced “enhanced communications solutions” to help healthcare providers improve workplace collaboration and patient care.

The solutions use mobility, automated outreach and other technologies to enhance care coordination, pre-admissions preparedness and post-discharge care, company officials said.

“Healthcare professionals need to be instantly reachable and quick to respond in order to deliver the most effective care,” said Sanjeev Gupta, general manager of Avaya's Healthcare Solutions group, in a statement. “The tools we are showcasing today streamline communications in an industry where every second counts.”

According to Gartner, healthcare providers worldwide will spend $87.7 billion on IT, including hardware, software, IT services and telecommunications in 2011. Innovative technologies will play a central role in healthcare in 2011. For instance,  Avaya's solutions help speed up clinical processes and remove the barriers that can frustrate healthcare professionals, the company noted.

A recent Spyglass Consulting Group report says that 69 percent of hospital-based physicians and 87 percent of private practice physicians indicate their biggest communications challenge is connecting with colleagues in a timely manner.

Avaya’s new offerings include Avaya Mobile Device Checkout 3.0. The Checkout 3.0 frees hospital staff from the nurses’ station by enabling communications from anywhere on hospital grounds using a personalized Wireless LAN mobile device, according to company officials.

“Steps are eliminated for most everything, whether obtaining lab results or transporting patients to radiology,” said George Glessner, process coordinator, emergency department, Rochester General Hosptial. “With Avaya Mobile Device Checkout, staff is now reachable from anywhere in and just outside the hospital, including the emergency department parking lot and helipad, thus enabling us to easily make arrangements for patients in critical condition as they arrive.”

Recently, Avaya announced that its plans to work with IBM to integrate applications from the two companies' unified communications and collaboration portfolios. The new integration leverages the IBM Lotus user experience and the Avaya Aura core communications platform to offer an “easy-to-use” interface to consumers.


Rajani Baburajan is a contributing editor for HealthTechZone. To read more of Rajani's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Janice McDuffee
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