Telmediq
Improved Patient Care with Unified, Secure Communication Hub

Effective patient care requires a robust communication system, able to connect physicians, nurses and the extended care team, even in times of emergency. Many healthcare organizations employ pager systems as the primary communication platform, a system which causes delays in communication and remains unconnected to the emerging opportunities of the digitization of patient records.

Understanding the critical need for a more effective and secure system to deliver effective and timely care, Ben Moore founded Telmediq in 2012 with the aim to transform communications with healthcare. “We have built a healthcare communication hub that integrates with the Electronic Health Record (EHR) and other communication systems in a hospital, streamlining communication among the care team,” explains Moore.

Telmediq offers HIPAA-compliant applications for physicians and nurses to send and receive critical messages, with full integration with the EHR, Lab systems, Nurse Call systems, Scheduling systems, Alarming platforms, and Telephone systems. The software provides persistent delivery features and escalation rules to ensure critical messages are attended to quickly, even when a smartphone does not have a data connection. The solution replaces manual tasks including logging into the EHR, looking up contact information, making sure a message reaches its intended target or waiting for a callback, all of which undermine direct patient care.

With integration to the medical record, Telmediq’s solution provides visibility into patient status, clinical notes, lab results and care team information. Nurses and physicians can input and receive updates directly to the EHR through the solution. Telmediq’s communication platform also interfaces with alarms, nurse call systems, phone and lab systems and other systems of record, which has been proven to increase user adoption and improve care team communication.

“Our cloud-based communication solution is simple to use, providing timely access to patient data and communication tools to help improve patient care,” says Moore.

An effective communication platform is not just for sending and receiving messages, it’s about unlocking the potential of siloed healthcare systems to help improve patient care

“When healthcare teams are more co-ordinated, care can be delivered more quickly and accurately, with less administrative overhead spent on inefficient communication and documentation systems.”

With a primitive one-way pager system in place, Hennepin County Medical Center—a 472-bed hospital with over 50 primary care clinics distributed throughout Minneapolis—faced long patient discharge times and high administrative overhead to co-ordinate patient care. Telmediq resolved the roadblock by implementing a secured two-way communication system which drastically increased the overall performance of the hospital and improved the response time by nearly 500 percent for trauma team activations within the ER.

Effective communication among the care team leads to more timely patient care, shorter hospital stays and increased patient satisfaction. For nurses, enhanced communication and automation lead to more direct patient care hours and better patient communication. With an increased focus on hospital HCAHPS scores, the value of these improvements cannot be overlooked.

“We’ve been recognized by KLAS as one of the strongest platform options for Care Team Communication because we recognize that an effective communication platform is not just for sending and receiving messages, it’s about unlocking the potential of siloed healthcare systems to help improve patient care,” states Moore. Moving ahead, the company is planning to launch more features to facilitate the communications between healthcare professionals and patient families and to integrate tools to support the automation of non-essential tasks.