Tag Archive for: WarOnPagers

Celebration in the streets as RCare Mobile Officially Declares VICTORY in Pager War

,
RCare Mobile prevents problems of personal cell phones

#WaronPagers   #RCareMobileVictory

RCare Mobile announced today that after many months of battle against outdated caregiving pagers, the white flag has been raised and RCare Mobile is the victor!

RCare Mobile declares victory in the War on PagersThis long-awaited victory marks a period in professional caregiving history that will change the lives of senior housing administrators, caregiving staff and residents for the better. Staff will now have better and more complete incident information, faster response times, and all without sacrificing patient privacy and integrity.

“For too many years, long-term care facilities have toiled under the tyranny of under-powered, pager-based nurse call systems,” said General Myron Kowal, CEO of RCare, Inc. “This was a battle for professional caregivers who valiantly endured many years of responding to calls without knowing how urgent the situation is, what was needed, or who else was responding. And today I’m proud to stand with them and shout, ‘No more!'”

RCare Mobile provides the functionality caregivers have been longing for. It uses a dedicated locked-down smartphone, on which caregivers receive alerts as well as detailed resident information. It allows two-way voice and text communications, and features the unique I Got It button, that lets other staff know who is responding to the call and eliminates duplicate staff responses.

RCare Mobile declares victory in the War on Pagers

RCare Mobile provides all the smartphone features that caregivers need, and does NOT allow any of the social sharing and photo features that put facilities at legal risk.

Victory arrived just in time. Caregivers had been making heroic efforts in the trenches to make do with their archaic, pager-based call systems. But these efforts are not without costs. Using personal smartphones to communicate amongst staff and provide a high level of care is a dangerous practice for care facilities.

Recently the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has made a decisive stand against the use of personal cell phones, especially when care staff take photos and videos, or make posts about residents on social media. CMS has announced it is coming down hard on organizations that don’t have adequate privacy policies against staff taking photos or videos of residents, especially if they post them on social media. This is true even if the staff have written permission from the resident. The reason? Most social media posts don’t meet the definition of a use or disclosure authorized by HIPAA. So any post, even seemingly innocent pictures of a social event, is considered a HIPAA breach. Even more critical, CMS is requiring that facilities report violators to local law enforcement on the charge of elder abuse. CMS is actively cracking down.

With RCare Mobile, long-term care facilities can provide their staff with all the functionality they require in a phone-based call system, eliminating the need for any personal cell phones on the job. RCare Mobile provides all the smartphone features that caregivers need, and allows none of the features that put facilities legal risk. RCare Mobile provides caregivers with two-way communication, complete information, and the unique “I Got It” function that makes sure every call is answered, and without duplicate effort. It does it on a cell phone dedicated to this purpose, with nothing that can get a facility in trouble. No camera. No video. And no access to social media.

The war on pagers has been won. Thanks to RCare Mobile.

RCare Mobile declares victory in the War on Pagers

You can find RCare
at AHCA/NCAL in Nashville
Oct 16-19
Booth #257

and at LeadingAge in Indianapolis
Oct 30-Nov 2
Booth #2418

If you’re at the shows, stop by and see us!

RCare War on Pagers: If Everybody Is Responsible, No One Is Accountable

Screen Shot 2016-04-19 at 12.46.36 PM

Shouting “Call 9-1-1” to a crowd of onlookers in a medical emergency doesn’t work. Instead, it’s better to identify a specific individual to make the call. Why? Because if you don’t, the call might not get made. Scientists call this the “bystander effect” or the diffusion of responsibility. When everybody is responsible, no one is accountable.

This is one of several reasons why pager systems are inadequate for senior housing communities. When a resident needs help, every pager goes off. Who’s accountable for responding to that call? No one knows.

With RCare Mobile, accountability is guaranteed. When the call for help goes out, the nearest available staff member responds using the “I Got It” feature to let other staff know that they are handling it. Now you know who is accountable, every time.

Find out more about RCare Mobile and RCare’s War on Pagers.

Death to Pagers: 15 Uses for Obsolete Pagers (#8 Will Shock You!)

Long term care and senior housing communities around the world are finding their archaic pager systems to be ineffective and outdated. They’re coming to RCare Mobile™ for the two-way communication, and the “I Got It” accountability feature.

When healthcare professionals communicate about life and death emergencies, they need more than just a beep and a phone number. They need to know who is having the emergency, and what kind of emergency it is. They need to know where it is, what is needed, and who is responding. They need to know how urgent the matter is. Should they drop everything and run, or can they finish with their current patient first? And they need to know right away. That’s why it’s time for pagers to pack it in. Hit the road. Make way for more effective technology. Make way for RCare Mobile’s accountability.

Disgruntled nurses across the country are sending video footage of their hilarious disposals of the old tech. Check out the footage from the front…

But I know some of you are worried. When the war has been won, and health facilities are communicating with technology from this decade, what is to become of all those old pagers? If you’re like my grandparents, you’re thinking, those thingamajigees still have some good in them.

As the official RCare MobileTM War on Pagers wages on, RCare wants to help you figure out some good uses for these previously unusable items. There’s no need for them to go to waste. We’ve come up with 15 new and innovative uses for your old pagers. (Note that none of the new uses involve taking care of patients and residents or communicating with staff. That’s better left to RCare MobileTM.) Enjoy new ways to use your pagers.

5 Pager Pet Peeves and Why They Should Go Away for Good

Pagers. You know, those annoying, ugly boxes from the early 90s, usually associated with doctors and dealers? Those one-way devices used for sending messages may have died nearly twenty years ago, yet they are still walking around like inattentive zombies in one place – care facilities. Hospitals, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities are keeping pagers alive. But, why? We’ve decided to make a list. Here are our top five reasons why it’s time to pull the plug on pagers:

  • The technology is outdated.

Pagers rose to popularity in the mid-90s, peaking in 1994, and have since been experiencing a slow and inevitable decline into obsolescence.  They cannot be update, and the one-sided technology leads patient care into the past! Pagers are so old, in fact, that some of our staff members had to look them up on Wikipedia to find out what we were talking about.

  • They’re ineffective.Screen Shot 2016-04-04 at 2.49.06 PM

What use is a basket full of pagers sitting at the front desk? In many hospitals still using pagers, this is the reality of the situation. If everyone is responsible for making sure that buzzing pagers are checked, no one is truly accountable for missed calls, making the entire system ineffective and unreasonable.

  • They’re one-trick ponies.

Pagers in hospital and other care facilities are almost always one-way communication devices. You wear this bulky, outdated box on your hip all day, and the only thing it can do is receive pages. Nurses and other hospital staff become fed up with the slow and outdated technology and tend to use their own, personal smart devices, leading to privacy and security issues for the care facility.

  • There are better options.

It’s 2016, and everyone walks around tethered to a smart device.  Because many care facilities ban personal smart devices due to privacy concerns, RCare has designed RCare Mobile™, a secure and customized mobile smart device designed for busy nursing staff, administration and professional caregivers. RCare Mobile’s “I Got It” feature creates an environment of seamless communication between all staff who have been alerted to an issue.

  • Your staff, your residents and your community deserve the latest and greatest in care.

Better response times, proper incident handling, and accountability features make for a less stressful workplace, more effective staff members and residents who feel more secure. Happy caregivers make for happy residents and a happy place to be.

So ditch the pagers and let RCare Mobile™ put more smiles in your world.