Increasing Nurse Time at the Bedside at Fairfield Medical Center

Fairfield Medical Center in Lancaster, Ohio, cut its nurse-to-physician contact time by more than half with the PerfectServe physician contact network, enabling its nurses to have more time at the bedside.

Knoxville, TN (PRWEB) June 29, 2009 -- Fairfield Medical Center (FMC) in Lancaster, Ohio, cut its nurse-to-physician contact time by more than half with the PerfectServe physician contact network, enabling its nurses to have more time at the bedside.

Before using PerfectServe, nurses and switchboard operators at FMC were faced with 250 separate sets of call preferences covering all the physicians on staff.

"Now, with PerfectServe, our nurses just press a button, and they're able to have direct access to the physician they need to reach," said Cynthia Pearsall, RN, vice president and chief nursing officer. "Most times, this means either they're routed straight through to the physician's cell, or they leave a voice mail which the physician will listen to personally."

A study was conducted by the University of Colorado, in which physician contact at FMC was compared to three other hospitals that did not use PerfectServe. Research found that in a hospital using PerfectServe:

• Nurses required 81 percent fewer repeat phone calls to reach physicians.

• ICU-to-physician contact cycle times were more than 50 percent quicker.

• Nurses completed 10 times more physician contacts in two minutes or less.

"The amount of time that a caregiver has to utilize to get in touch with a physician has been reduced significantly," said Mina Ubbing, chief executive officer. "PerfectServe allows our caregivers to have more of an opportunity to be at the bedside."

The PerfectServe physician-contact network automatically routes calls and messages to the right doctor, at the right time, in the precise way each physician wishes to be reached. Communication occurs faster, with greater efficiency and safety, because PerfectServe assembles and maintains the entire communications workflow and contact preferences for every medical staff physician, for every moment of every day. The company currently serves nearly 12,000 physicians in 150 markets across the U.S. For more information, visit www.perfectserve.com. To view the FMC video, visit www.perfectserve.com/hospital.html.

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