Munroe Regional Medical Center Improves Care Coordination with New Clinical Communications System

Ocala, FL – Munroe Regional Medical Center in Ocala, Fla., recently went live with PerfectServe’s enhanced clinician-to-clinician communications system, which reduces risk and eliminates communication breakdowns associated with contacting on-call physicians.

On the day of the launch, all of the hospital’s 522 physicians and mid-level providers went live with PerfectServe, which is already processing more than 600 clinical communication events every day.

This rapid adoption of PerfectServe as the preferred means of communication was accelerated by the ease of its new voice portal, which enables physicians and nurses to quickly connect with anyone on the medical staff by simply speaking his or her name. Since each physician’s workflow, call schedules and contact preferences are built in, PerfectServe makes it easy for Munroe Regional Medical Center clinicians to contact the right physician, at the right time, in the right way.

“Our physicians are open to change and could immediately see the benefits of PerfectServe, especially since it allows them to control how and when they want to be contacted,” said Dr. Lon McPherson, Munroe Regional Medical Center’s senior vice president of medical affairs and chief quality officer.

“Their response since our launch has been overwhelmingly positive. One of our doctors said this was the first time in 20 years he could sleep through the night because non-urgent calls were routed to his office instead of his home phone. Another physician gave up his beeper after 31 years because of the system’s ability to provide reliable, direct connections.”

PerfectServe facilitates fast, accurate and reliable communications and has four core capabilities to benefit physicians, nurses and other clinicians:•A physician-centric, rules-based communications workflow engine that allows physicians to filter and control the communications they receive based on their practice workflow and personal contact preferences.

•A single network platform and directory that connects every medical staff member with easy access via voice search, Web and mobile interfaces.

•An integrated practice component that enables physicians to control the flow of communications received through their offices.

•Mobile tools and a 24/7 help center staffed with clinical communications experts that make it easy for physicians to keep their rules current and optimize their communications workflow.

Munroe Regional Medical Center and PerfectServe worked closely together to ensure a successful launch. They educated physicians about the simplicity of the system – which doesn’t require any special devices – and provided a link on the hospital’s physician portal for easier registration. “The hospital and our implementation team did a great job obtaining buy-in from the clinical leaders,” said Terry Edwards, chief executive officer of PerfectServe. “Our system’s new capabilities also facilitated a smooth implementation. And Munroe was our first hospital to include our ED call management program as part of the initial launch.”

“We are encouraged by the fact that more hospitals like Munroe understand that better clinical communication – especially physician-to-physician and nurse-to-physician – help everyone improve efficiency and better coordinate care for patients.”

The PerfectServe system was developed from years of research and real world experiences with more than 14,000 physicians in 24 hospitals and 2,500 practices nationwide. It addresses a long – neglected problem – the communication breakdowns that often occur when clinicians need to connect with on-call physicians. (For more on this topic, see “Connecting with Physicians: the Hospital Problem No One Talks About.”)

About PerfectServe

PerfectServe offers intelligent voice, online and mobile clinical communication solutions that route calls and messages to the right doctor, at the right time. It gives physicians complete control over the communications they receive while enabling hospital clinicians to expedite and improve care coordination. Based in Knoxville, Tenn., PerfectServe processes more than 30 million clinical communication interactions each year involving more than 14,000 physicians in 154 markets across the U.S. For more information, visit www.perfectserve.com.

About Munroe

Regional Medical Center Munroe Regional Medical Center is a locally owned, not-for-profit, acute care community hospital located in Ocala, Florida. Munroe Regional has been serving the residents of Marion County and surrounding communities for 112-years and is the largest private sector employer in Marion County. The medical center has 421 licensed beds, 2,500 associates, 450 physicians and 1,700 volunteers. Munroe Regional admits over 24,000 patients each year, treats over 96,000 in three emergency departments, and sees another 51,000 for other outpatient needs. Munroe Regional’s mission is to improve the health of our community by delivering compassionate, innovative care through exceptional people doing extraordinary works. Munroe Regional is located at 1500 SW 1st Ave, Ocala, Florida. Website address is www.munroeregional.com. Main telephone number is (352) 351-7200.