Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel Improves Clinical Communications with EXTENSION

FORT WAYNE, Ind. --(Business Wire)--

EXTENSION, INC. today announced the completion of phase 1 of its installation with Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel that integrates the facility's Rauland-Borg Responder 5 nurse call system with its 50 Cisco (News - Alert) wireless handsets assigned to clinicians throughout each unit in the 3-floor, 83-bed hospital.

"Our hospital was very intentionally designed from the ground up to provide a healing environment that supports the care our patients receive," said Brian Adams, President and CEO at Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel. "EXTENSION has provided us with a middleware solution that enables nurses to communicate with multiple patients without relying on noisy overhead paging systems."

One popular feature of the EXTENSION communication platform for staff members at Wesley Chapel is the ability to send Code Blue and Rapid Response alerts to the appropriate group via a user-friendly web interface. This operator console is located in the ED and staffed 24/7 to accept and distribute messages to the necessary users.

"Our nurses are quickly adapting to many new technologies since opening the new facility," explained Mary Brady, CNO at Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel. "EXTENSION complimented our existing workflows rather than introducing significant changes. Nurses appreciate the ease with which they are now able to immediately communicate with other staff."

"Medical technologies are intended to make the lives of nurses easier, but can be burdensome if the needs of users are not considered in the workflow design," said Tom Berger, CNO at EXTENSION. "EXTENSION dds value by equipping nurses with a communications tool that enables quick access to patients and staff without crippling their need to think critically and respond intuitively."

Phase 2 is scheduled to begin soon and will include integrations with an RFID-enabled infant security system, a patient education and engagement system, clinician proximity awareness, patient safety fall prevention, STAT Orders, Critical Lab Results, and secure text messaging for the entire population.

"When a nurse walks into a patient room, their picture and name appear on the television screen," said Brady. "We would like to expand our location services to automatically place a nurse's handset offline when tending to a patient, or performing a critical task requiring a high degree of attention. We intend to fully leverage the capabilities of our new state-of-the-art technologies."

About EXTENSION, INC. (www.OpenTheRedBox.com)

EXTENSION® offers award-winning solutions that facilitate instant communication between patients and clinicians. Our solutions enhance common communication devices (wireless phones, smartphones, and communication badges) used as clinical workflow tools by aggregating data from various clinical/IT systems and delivering time-critical alerts to the devices. By establishing repeatable and reliable processes with EXTENSION's workflow software, healthcare systems improve patient safety, patient and staff satisfaction, and efficiency.

About Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (www.FHWesleyChapel.org)

Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel is an 83 all-private bed hospital. Built from the ground-up, this full-service community hospital features expert staff, specialty design and state-of-the art technology built for better patient care. The hospital features state of the art imaging and surgical equipment, much of it first in the region. Services include an emergency department, cardiac care, vascular surgery, orthopedics and sports medicine, women's services and gynecology, obstetrics, and a free-standing Health & Wellness Center (opening in early 2013).

Part of the Adventist Health System, Florida Hospital is a leading, not-for-profit health network comprised of 22 hospitals throughout the state.