The new patient tower at Dayton Children's Hospital features the latest technology, helping doctors and nurses transform care and provide a better healthcare experience for patients and families. Among the hospital’s list of transformative technology are hands-free communication badges and a secure texting application by Vocera Communications, Inc. (NYSE:VCRA), a recognized leader in clinical communication and workflow solutions.

The 155-bed multi-specialty pediatric hospital recently opened its new 260,000-square-foot patient tower. During the move to the new facility, care team members used Vocera technology to stay connected and easily communicate, ensuring a safe and smooth transition of more than 40 children from four units.

“The children love the Vocera badges. They call them our Star Trek buttons! And our nurses love them, too, because they allow instant communication to the rest of the staff, which is incredibly important in a fast-paced mobile environment.” said Jayne Gmeiner, chief nursing officer at Dayton Children’s Hospital. “We selected Vocera knowing that the company was aligned with our mission and that its solutions would simplify patient and care team communication. We also knew Vocera could meet our growing and evolving workflow needs now and in the future.”

The hospital, which has more than 300,000 patient visits a year, has integrated the Vocera hands-free technology with the Hill-Rom® NaviCare® Nurse Call system. Pillow speakers connect patients directly to their nurse via the Vocera badge they are wearing. The child can simply push a button for “pain” or “potty,” and the nurse is alerted with context, enabling the caregiver to respond verbally, immediately and appropriately. Helping care teams improve patient safety, Vocera technology directly integrates with the Hill-Rom NaviCare® Nurse Call system to receive bed exit and chair exit alerts as well as code-blue alarms, ventilators alerts, and a variety of patient calls and requests. The Vocera solution also directly integrates with GetWellNetwork®, Inc., the leader in Interactive Patient Care™ (IPC) solutions. When a patient or family member provides a comment or request through GetWellNetwork's bedside solution, an alert is sent to the child’s nurse. The system can also alert partners in care, including dietary, child life specialists and environmental services, if an issue requires immediate attention.

“While our clinical and communication systems are high-tech, our goal is to make the patient experience high-touch,” said Gmeiner. “With instant communication and immediate feedback, we are better able to connect with patients and families and take care of their needs faster.”

An integration with Vocera and the hospital’s telephone system also makes it easier and faster for patients or families to connect with a specific caregiver. Using the landline phone in the hospital room, a patient or loved one can simply dial 111 to reach the assigned nurse via their wearable badge, 222 for the certified nursing assistant, or 333 for respiratory therapy.

The hospital has plans for additional integrations between its clinical and communication systems, including interfaces between Vocera technology and the hospital’s electronic health records (EHR) and physiologic monitoring systems. With more than 2,400 employees and more than 400 physicians, the hospital also expects to standardize communication across all care teams using the Vocera communication platform to unify disparate people, processes and solutions.

Secure texting using the Vocera smartphone app is also underway among hospital medicine physicians, which is expected to improve communication and collaboration. In addition to allowing users to call or text by name or role, the Vocera smartphone app enables group messages for regulatory walk-through, admissions and consults, using pre-defined messaging templates that promote standards and predictable outcomes. Vocera smartphone app users can easily add others to messaging conversations, and messages can be securely forwarded to other users. The app also enables content management via a Wi-Fi or cellular connection. Additionally, the on-call schedule within the intelligent rules engine ensures proper staffing and communication distribution.

“I am so impressed by the holistic, thoughtful approach that Dayton Children’s Hospital took to elevate care, safety and satisfaction,” said Brent Lang, president and CEO of Vocera. “Hospital leaders clearly designed the new pediatric tower with input from patients, families and staff. The infrastructure supports innovative technology, while the environment enables meaningful human-to-human connections. We are honored to support the hospital in its mission to deliver world-class pediatric care.”

About Dayton Children’s Hospital

One of only 45 independent freestanding children's hospitals in the country, Dayton Children's is the region's only medical facility dedicated to children. Accredited by The Joint Commission and serving 20 Ohio counties and eastern Indiana, the experts at Dayton Children's care for 300,000 children each year. Consistently recognized as one of the country's best and most cost-effective pediatric hospitals, Dayton Children's is home to the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics and together with the United States Air Force shares the nation's only civilian-military integrated pediatric training program. For more children's health and safety information, visit our web site at www.childrensdayton.org.

About Vocera

The mission of Vocera Communications, Inc. is to simplify and improve the lives of healthcare professionals and patients, while enabling hospitals to enhance quality of care and operational efficiency. In 2000, when the company was founded, we began to forever change the way care teams communicate. Today, Vocera continues to offer the leading platform for clinical communication and workflow. More than 1,400 hospitals and health systems around the world have selected our solutions for care teams to text securely using smartphones or make calls with our hands-free, wearable Vocera Badge. Interoperability between Vocera and more than 120 clinical systems helps reduce alarm fatigue, speed up staff response times, and improve patient care, safety and experience. In addition to healthcare, Vocera is at home in luxury hotels, nuclear facilities, libraries, retail stores and more. Vocera makes a difference in any industry where workers are on the move and need to connect instantly with team members and access resources or information quickly. Learn more at www.vocera.com, and follow @VoceraComm on Twitter.

The Vocera logo is a trademark of Vocera Communications, Inc. Vocera® is a trademark of Vocera Communications, Inc. registered in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other trademarks appearing in this release are the property of their respective owners.