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Healthcare
Contact Center Industry News
February/March 2012
RelayHealth Becomes AnswerStat Sponsor
AnswerStat
magazine
is pleased to announce that RelayHealth is now a Silver Sponsor of AnswerStat
magazine. RelayHealth joins the five other official sponsors of
AnswerStat magazine, who as industry-leading organizations have put their
stamp of approval on the mission and work of AnswerStat.
The six
AnswerStat sponsors for 2012 (listed alphabetically) are:
AnswerStat
salutes these esteemed companies for their support and leadership in the
healthcare contact center and telehealth industry.
Startel Secure Messaging Announced
Startel Corporation’s new secure messaging application stores protected health
information (PHI) securely on mobile devices, encrypts PHI messages during
transmission, and protects messages upon delivery. Distinguishing itself from
many other applications, secure messaging also enables secure, peer-to-peer
communication between smartphones. With the release of this new secure messaging
system, health clinicians now have a secure and efficient means of communication
– with comprehensive audit trails and reporting capabilities.
Fully compliant with HIPAA, HITECH, GLBA, and SOX, Startel Secure Messaging
utilizes Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology. Startel’s secure messaging
application is currently available for iOS® (Apple® Mobile OS), Android®
(Google® OS), and Blackberry® (RIM® OS). The application can be enabled in two
easy steps:
1) Download from a
Web-based application marketplace.
2) Enter a unique
registration ID supplied by a sponsoring organization.
Says William Lane, president of Startel Corporation, “While the application
itself is free, the sponsoring organization needs to subscribe to Startel’s SMS
Service or make other cost-effective arrangements with Startel. This way,
Startel is not placed between our customers and our customer’s clients.”
For more information, contact Myrna Nunez at 800-782-7835 or sales@startel.com.
AAACN Releases 5th Edition of Telehealth Standards
The
American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing (AAACN) released the newly titled
Scope and Standards of Practice for Professional Telehealth Nursing. The
fifth edition provides scope and practice guidance specific to the ambulatory
subspecialty of telehealth. The standards promote effective clinical and
administrative management of the increasingly complex telehealth nursing roles
and responsibilities in a changing healthcare environment. Sixteen standards are
included, along with competencies for telehealth registered nurses, nurse
executives, administrators, and managers. The standards reflect current
professional norms, practices, and expectations.
The
publication can be used as a tool to advance ambulatory care professional
nursing practice, patient health, and the performance outcomes of telehealth
institutions. This resource is ideal for writing policies, procedures, and job
descriptions; orienting staff; planning for Joint Commission surveys; and
increasing the quality and safety of patient care. You can also use the
“standards” to prepare for the ambulatory care nursing certification exam, which
contains questions on telehealth nursing and is the recommended exam to validate
telehealth nursing knowledge. It costs $44.
Paging Carrier Association
Adopts New Name
The American Association of Paging Carriers has changed its name to the Critical
Messaging Association (CMA). Founded in 2002, the association is the only U.S.
trade group for companies that provide paging and critical messaging products
and services. Emergency healthcare professionals, first responders, and public
safety personnel – who require reliable, fast communications during a crisis or
disaster – have been the core critical messaging user since paging was first
introduced in the early 1960s.
“Our name change reflects the continued importance of the critical messaging
segment within the overall communications industry, as well the broad array of
products and technologies, in addition to paging, that now support the delivery
of time-sensitive and critical messages,” said Critical Messaging Association
President J. Roy Pottle. “We invite anyone with a role in this dynamic industry
to consider the benefits of being a member.”
CMA has launched a new website in conjunction with the name change, criticalmessagingassociation.org,
and will hold its 2012 Global Critical Messaging Convention March 27-29 in
Austin, Texas.
Acqueon Releases
AiQ 4.0
Acqueon Technologies announced the release of AiQ 4.0, which offers new
social media and mobile application features to improve the customer experience
and an improved SIP engine to give contact centers greater support for telephony
and Web mashups. AiQ enables organizations to offer numerous communication
channels in their contact centers, including social media, texting, and chat,
along with voice and email.
A universal
work assignment engine as opposed to the traditional skill-based
routing used in legacy contact centers enables enterprises to service and route
their customer interactions to the right resources based the context of their
current and past interaction history. This version reduces the time callers need
to wait to talk to an agent and enables them to continue an interaction with the
same agent, even if it was unexpectedly interrupted. Supervisor desktop
applications join data reporting in a growing list of applications accessible
via a range of mobile devices for supervisors outside of the traditional call
center.
Acqueon provides solutions to the healthcare field with applications such as
prescription refill, telemarketing to prospective clients, and collections, as
well as helping with disease management and controlling emergency room visits
and costs.
Annual AAACN Conference
The American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing (AAACN) 37th Annual Conference,
May 2-5, 2012, will be held at the Hilton in the Walt Disney World Resort® in
Lake Buena Vista, FL. The conference’s keynote address, “Livin’, Laughin’, and
Learnin’… Through the Years,” will be delivered by Barbee Bancroft, MSN, RN,
PNP. Bancroft will explore the new nursing environment and how nurses can stay
healthy while balancing everyone else’s lives. Additional sessions on how
healthcare reform will affect the specialty are woven throughout the conference
program.
Participants will attend education sessions presented by industry experts,
enhance their ambulatory and telehealth nursing knowledge, strengthen their
leadership skills, earn continuing nursing education (CNE) contact hours, view
posters, visit the Exhibit Hall, and network with colleagues. Participants may
also register for the Telehealth Nursing Practice Core Course (TNPCC) and the
Ambulatory Care Nursing Certification Review Course.
Each year, the AAACN conference attracts a broad range of healthcare providers
who work in ambulatory care settings, including military and telehealth.
Attendees include RNs who are administrators, directors, managers, educators,
care coordinators, and clinicians.
Apple miSecureMessages App Enhanced
The 1Call division of Amtelco announced that the miSecureMessages™ App for
Apple® devices has been updated and is available for download on the iTunes®
store. The app sends encrypted messages to smartphones and mobile devices and
allows for secure two-way communications, maintaining protected health
information (PHI). It saves time for clinicians and patients, helping
organizations meet HIPAA and HITECH regulations, while also providing better
patient care. With Apps available for the Apple iPad®, iPhone®, and iPod touch®,
as well as for Android™ and BlackBerry® devices, it is an ideal solution for
replacing pagers.
A few of the new enhancements include giving users faster access to replying,
forwarding, deleting, or completing a message or message thread. The forward
button is also now available on the view message screen, saving time for users.
In addition, phone numbers, email addresses, and street addresses now appear as
clickable links in the message body, message subject, and the message thread
pages, speeding response times.
Contact 1Call at 800-225-6035 or info@1call.com.
1Call to Attend HIMSS12 and 2012 NAEO Conference
The 1Call division of Amtelco announced that 1Call will have two booth locations
at HIMSS12, which will be held February 20-24 in Las Vegas. Attendees can find
1Call’s complete call center solutions in HIMSS booth 13123 and can find out
more about miSecureMessages encrypted two-way messaging and pager replacement
solution in the HIMSS Mobile Health Knowledge Center, booth 12928, kiosk 16.
HIMSS attendees are invited to take part in 1Call’s presentation on
miSecureMessages in the Mobile Health Knowledge Center on Tuesday, February 21,
from 4:15-5:00 pm.
The 2012 NAEO (National Amtelco Equipment Owners) annual conference is also
being held in Las Vegas, February 19-22, at the Cosmopolitan Hotel. HIMSS
attendees are invited to join 1Call at the NAEO conference for several
opportunities, including the Amtelco-sponsored party, which will be held at the
Cosmopolitan Hotel from 7:00 until 10:00 p.m. on Monday, February 20. HIMSS
attendees can also participate in the 1Call seminar, which will be held at the
Cosmopolitan Hotel from 12:30 until 4:00 pm on Wednesday, February 22.
To reserve a spot at the NAEO sessions, call 800-225-6035 or email to
info@1call.com.
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