TigerConnect News

Webinar Today: One Secure Video, Voice & Text Solution for Patients & Providers

Posted by HIPAA Journal

On Tuesday, April 2, 2020, TigerConnect is hosting a webinar to explain how its unified healthcare communication and collaboration platform can be used to accelerate clinical workflows and improve communication in healthcare.

The TigerConnect team will explain how their communication platform helps healthcare providers to engage patients at home and collaborate with staff across the entire health system through a single, secure, HIPAA-compliant app.

In the webinar you will discover how advanced integrations and telehealth features make patients and care teams instantly reachable, which helps healthcare organizations reduce readmissions, improve patient satisfaction, and deliver better patient care.

Webinar Details:

Thursday, April 2 at 10 a.m. PT
Live webinar with demo followed by Q&A

Hosted by:
Dr. Will O’Connor, Chief Medical Information Officer, TigerConnect
Tommy Wright, Solutions Marketing Director, TigerConnect

Click Here to Register for the Webinar

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Webinar Today: Communication Best Practices During a Pandemic

Posted by HIPAA Journal

During the 2019 Novel Coronavirus pandemic, instant, immediate, and enterprise-wide communication is essential for slowing the spread of the virus and ensuring service continuity.

Relatively little is known about the Novel Coronavirus and how it is spread. It is a fast-evolving situation and new information is regularly being released by researchers and public health authorities. That information and updates to policies and procedures need to be rapidly communicated across healthcare organizations. It is also important for healthcare professionals to monitor the condition of patients who are self-isolating at home after displaying symptoms of COVID-19.

The 2019 Novel Coronavirus pandemic is placing health systems under a great strain and fast, effective, and efficient internal and external communication is critical.

TigerConnect, the leading secure healthcare communication platform provider, is hosting a webinar where the company’s healthcare communication experts will share communication and collaboration best practices for organizational preparedness, effective response, and service continuity during the 2019 Novel Coronavirus pandemic, and other times of crisis.

During the webinar, TigerConnect will discuss best practices for workflow readiness, how to accelerate internal and external communication, effective broadcasting of important updates to staff and external partners, how patient diagnosis and isolation workflows can be expediated, the best way to prioritize alerts for critical patients, how to ensure staff safety, and the use of text messaging to monitor patients who are self-isolating at home.

The TigerConnect platform has been adopted by more than 6,000 healthcare organizations to collaborate and communicate effectively. One of those healthcare organizations, Singapore Health, is using the TigerConnect platform to improve enterprise-wide communication and coordinate its response to COVID-19 cases. Singapore Health has been commended for the efficiency and effectiveness of its response to the crisis. TigerConnect will be sharing information on the lessons learned to help U.S. healthcare providers deal with the COVID-19 crisis more effectively.

The webinar is being hosted by Dr. Will O’Connor, Chief Medical Information Officer, TigerConnect and Julie Grenuk, Nurse Executive, TigerConnect.

The webinar will consist of a live presentation followed by a Q&A session.

Webinar Details:

Date:     Thursday, March 19th, 2020
Time:     2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT

Click here to register for the free webinar

The post Webinar Today: Communication Best Practices During a Pandemic appeared first on HIPAA Journal.

TigerConnect Secure Communications Platform Offered to Hospitals Free of Charge During COVID-19 Pandemic

Posted by HIPAA Journal

TigerConnect, the provider of the most widely used secure healthcare communications platform in the United States, has announced that U.S. health systems and hospitals can use its platform free of charge to help support COVID-19 related communications during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

TigerConnect has been tracking COVID-19 and the impact it is having on the U.S. healthcare system. Unsurprisingly given the rapid spread of the virus, use of its secure communications platform has surged. The company also reports that it is receiving an increasing number of calls from customers looking to expand licenses to make sure all staff have access to the platform to expedite internal and external communication and support isolation workflows.

The TigerConnect platform can be used to create dedicated channels for COVID-19 communications to provide support for patients and staff members. The platform ensures instant and immediate communication of preparedness plans, staff schedules, guidelines on infection control and isolation protocols, and other critical information. Users of the platform can contact any person within a healthcare system instantly, without knowing their number or extension.

“As part of the healthcare community, we harbor a sense of duty to do everything we can to keep the flow of information moving as quickly as possible,” explained TigerConnect. “This is the time to remove any barriers that might keep organizations from having every tool they need to fight COVID-19.”

Hospitals and health systems that have not yet adopted the TigerConnect platform are being offered complimentary use of the TigerConnect secure texting network for up to 6 months to support COVID-19 communications. Existing customers will be provided with complimentary expansion of TigerText Essentials licenses for up to 6 months. TigerConnect has also announced that it will be extending support hours and publishing resources and conducting webinars to help current and new users of the platform optimize communications.

As has been seen in Europe, which is now the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals and health systems are stretched and struggling to cope with the number of cases. Immediate, enterprise-wide communication is critical for preventing the spread of the disease.

In Singapore, stringent measures have been implemented to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. As of March 14, there have been 200 cases of COVID-19 in Singapore but no COVID-19 deaths. Coordinating the response to COVID-19 and ensuring resources are correctly allocated has been a major challenge, but one that has been helped by having an efficient communications system in place. 55,000 healthcare professionals in Singapore are using the TigerConnect platform and usage has increased fivefold in the past three weeks. Being prepared and having the systems in place to deal with outbreaks of disease that support fast and efficient communication has been invaluable.

“It is clear that identifying new cases quickly and sharing that information among key stakeholders is crucial to containment and treatment,” explained TigerConnect co-founder and CEO, Brad Brooks. “Our mission is to help organizations remove the barriers that might slow down those responses as we continue to partner with the organizations on the front lines of this crisis.”

The post TigerConnect Secure Communications Platform Offered to Hospitals Free of Charge During COVID-19 Pandemic appeared first on HIPAA Journal.

How One Company is Helping to Drive Down the Cost of U.S. Healthcare and Improve Patient Outcomes

Posted by HIPAA Journal

2019 Health Statistics published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) show healthcare expenditures in the United States are significantly higher than those in other developed countries. A 2018 Harvard study of 11 developed countries showed the United States had the highest healthcare costs relative to its GDP out of all 11 countries studied. Per capita healthcare spending was found to be almost twice that of other wealthy, developed countries.

Higher costs are not necessarily bad if they translate into better patient outcomes, but the OECD figures show that is not the case. The United States performed poorly for patient outcomes, even though the costs of healthcare are so high. Reducing the cost of healthcare is a major challenge and there is no silver bullet, but there are ways for costs to be reduced and for patient outcomes to be improved.

The Trump Administration is committed to reducing the cost of healthcare through executive orders and HHS rulings. In November 2018 an executive order – Improving Price and Quality Transparency in American Healthcare – was issued which is intended to improve healthcare price transparency to increase competition among hospitals and insurers and drive down healthcare spending.

Another key area where costs can be cut is by eliminating wastage in healthcare. A great deal of money being wasted due to inefficiency, such as the continued use of outdated communications technology.

The healthcare industry is still heavily reliant on communications technology from the 1970s. Advances are being made and new communications tools are being introduced, but oftentimes when new communications technology is purchased, it tends to be introduced in silos and healthcare organizations fail to achieve the full benefits. As a result, communications problems persist.

Communication inefficiencies are costing the healthcare industry dearly and that cost is being passed onto patients. Research shows communication inefficiencies cost a single 500-bed hospital around $4 million a year. The breakdown in communication is estimated to be a major factor in 70% of medical error deaths, according to a study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

One company helping to cut the cost of healthcare is TigerConnect. TigerConnect has developed an advanced communications and collaboration solution that allows all members of care teams to communicate and collaborate quickly, efficiently, and effectively. The platform helps accelerate productivity and eliminates wastage, which allows healthcare providers to reduce the cost of healthcare. The solution has also been shown to improve patient outcomes.

The platform has been shown to reduce wait times in emergency departments, reduce the potential for medical errors, reduce the length of hospitals stays, and the platform helps improve staff morale, especially among physicians. The platform eliminates phone tag, allows all members of the care team to access the data they need to make decisions, and ensures proper patient handoffs, which is where the majority of medical errors occur.  

The TigerConnect team is committed to solving pervasive problems in healthcare communication and continues to innovate and develop its solution to meet the need of healthcare organizations of all sizes. The platform has proven popular with healthcare organizations and the company has been enjoying a period of tremendous growth, according to 2019 figures released today.

The TigerConnect solution is the most widely adopted healthcare communications and collaboration platform in the United States and 2019 has seen the company expand its industry footprint further. More than 600 new clients have been added in 2019, including 100 new enterprise clients such as Geisinger, NCH Healthcare System, Penn State Health, University of Maryland Medical System, Einstein Medical Center, Cooper University Health Care, and St. Luke’s University Health Network. More than 6,000 healthcare organizations are now using the platform.

TigerConnect has also expanded its workforce to cope with the increased demand. Over 50 new members of staff joined the company in 2019. TigerConnect also created new leadership roles, with the appointment of former Vacasa CTO, Tim Goodwin, as its first Chief Technology Officer, former McKesson consultant Sarah Shillington as the SVP of client success, and former Expedia executive, Allie Hanegan as VP of People.

TigerConnect is now looking to make greater gains in 2020 and has launched several initiatives to accelerate growth. Ahead of HIMSS20, TigerConnect will be launching several major product and partner initiatives, the company will be aggressively marketing its solution toward new clients and will also be looking to expand its footprint with its existing customer base. TigerConnect has also confirmed it will be forming a client advisory group and will be leveraging additional forums to get feedback from users to identify areas where the platform can be further improved.

“As we look ahead to the next decade, we see nothing but greenfield opportunity to redefine the way healthcare teams, payers, and patients connect and collaborate. We remain steadfast in our mission to partner with care organizations of every size and type, providing them with the world’s most advanced collaboration technology to produce a vision of the future we can all be proud of,” said Brad Brooks, co-founder, and CEO of TigerConnect.

The post How One Company is Helping to Drive Down the Cost of U.S. Healthcare and Improve Patient Outcomes appeared first on HIPAA Journal.

Solving the Communication Problems in Healthcare

Posted by HIPAA Journal

52% of healthcare organizations experience communications disconnects that negatively impact patients daily or multiple times a week, according to a recent study by TigerConnect.

These communication problems are more than a cause of frustration for healthcare employees. They make care coordination difficult and lead to lapses in care. In fact, the impact of poor communication is far reaching and affects the entire organization.

At best, communication inefficiency causes delays that increase the cost of healthcare provision. At worst, poor communication contributes to preventable medical errors, physician burnout and, in the most extreme cases, it can lead to death.

Many healthcare facilities are still heavily reliant on outdated communication technology such as pagers and fax machines. Groups of healthcare employees use different tools to communicate and, even with a growing mobile workforce, landlines are relied upon far too frequently.

TigerConnect research has shown that communication channels in hospitals are badly fragmented. 89% of hospitals are still using fax machines and 39% are still heavily reliant on pagers for communicating with certain departments, roles or, in the worst cases, organization-wide.

Even when modern communications technology is adopted, it is often implemented in silos. Physicians and nurses may be moved onto modern communications systems, but others are not. Consequently, the full benefits are not realized.

These communication problems are not only a source of frustration for healthcare employees, patients are also noticing. A Harris poll of patients conducted in August 2019 showed patients are frustrated by inefficient communication in healthcare during hospital stays, visits, and by the methods providers are using to communicate with them.

Fixing Broken Communication in Healthcare

TigerConnect will be hosting a webinar in which the extent of the communication problems in the U.S. healthcare industry will be discussed along with the problems that communication disconnects are causing.

Dr. Will O’Connor, CMIO, TigerConnect  and Jorge Jeffery, Data Scientist & Researcher, will talk about these issues and will suggest a solution that will improve communication in healthcare, increase workflow efficiency, reduce common bottlenecks that are slowing patient throughput, and how improvements in communication can ensure more patients are seen in less time and the cost of healthcare provision can be reduced.

Webinar Details:

Topic:    Fixing Broken Communications in Healthcare

Date:     Thursday December 12, 2019

Time:    1.00 PM Eastern Time / 12:00 PM Central Time / 11:00 AM Mountain Time / 10.00 AM Pacific Time

Hosts:   Dr. Will O’Connor, CMIO, TigerConnect / Jorge Jeffery, Data Scientist & Researcher

The Webinar will be followed by a Q&A session

You can sign up for the webinar here.

The post Solving the Communication Problems in Healthcare appeared first on HIPAA Journal.

TigerConnect Survey Finds 89% of Healthcare Providers Still Use Fax Machines and 39% are Still Using Pagers

Posted by HIPAA Journal

TigerConnect has released its 2019 State of Healthcare Communications Report, which shows that continuing reliance on decades-old, inefficient communications technology is negatively impacting patients and is contributing to the increasing cost of healthcare provision.

For the report, TigerConnect surveyed more than 2,000 patients and 200 healthcare employees to assess the current state of communications in healthcare and gain insights into areas where communication inefficiencies are causing problems.

The responses clearly show that communication in healthcare is broken. 52% of healthcare organizations are experiencing communication disconnects that impact patients on a daily basis or several times a week. Those communication inefficiencies are proving frustrating for healthcare employees and patients alike.

The report reveals most hospitals are still heavily reliant on communications technology from the 1970s. 89% of hospitals still use faxes and 39% are still using pagers in some departments, roles, or even across the entire organization. The world may have moved on, but healthcare hasn’t, even though healthcare is the industry that stands to benefit most from the adoption of mobile technology.

The HHS’ Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) is pushing for fax machines to be eliminated by the end of 2020 and for healthcare organizations to instead use more secure, reliable, and efficient communications methods. Given the extensive use of fax machines, that target may be difficult to achieve.

“Adoption of modern communication solutions has occurred in every other industry but healthcare,” said Brad Brooks, chief executive officer and co-founder of TigerConnect. “Despite the fact that quality healthcare is vital to the well-being and functioning of a society, the shocking lack of communication innovation comes at a steep price, resulting in chronic delays, increased operational costs that are often passed down to the public, preventable medical errors, physician burnout, and in the worst cases, can even lead to death.”

The cost of communication inefficiencies in healthcare is considerable. According to NCBI, a 500-bed hospital loses more than $4 million each year as a result of communication inefficiencies and communication errors are the root cause of 70% of all medical error deaths.

The communication problems are certainly felt by healthcare employees, who waste valuable time battling with inefficient systems. The report reveals 55% of healthcare organizations believe the healthcare industry is behind the times in terms of communication technology compared to other consumer industries.

One of the main issues faced by healthcare professionals is not being able to get in touch with members of the care team when they need to. 39% of healthcare professionals said it was difficult or very difficult communicating with one or more groups of care team members.

Fast communication is critical for providing high quality care to patients and improvements are being made, albeit slowly. Secure messaging is now the primary method of communication overall for nurses (45%) and physicians (39%), although landlines are the main form of communication for allied health professionals (32%) and staff outside hospitals (37%), even though secure messaging platforms can be used by all groups in all locations.

Even though there is an increasing mobile workforce in healthcare, healthcare organizations are still heavily reliant on landlines. Landlines are still the top method of communication when secure messaging is not available. Landlines are also used 25% of the time at organizations that have implemented secure messaging.

Healthcare organizations that have taken steps to improve communication and have implemented secure messaging platforms are failing to get the full benefits of the technology. All too often, secure messaging technology is implemented in silos, with different groups using different methods and tools to communicate with each other. When secure messaging is not used, such as when the platform is only used by certain roles, communication is much more difficult.

The communications problems are also felt by patients. Nearly three quarters (74%) of surveyed patients who had spent at least some time in hospital in the past two years, either receiving treatment or visiting an immediate family member, said they were frustrated by inefficient processes.

The most common complaints were slow discharge/transfer times (31%), ED time with doctors (22%), long waiting room times (22%), the ability to communicate with a doctor (22%), and the length of time it takes to get lab test results back (15%). Many of these issues could be eased through improved communication between members of the care team. The survey also revealed hospital staff tend to underestimate the level of frustration that patients experience.

Communication problems play a large part in the bottlenecks that often occur in healthcare. Communication problems were cited as causing delayed discharges (50%), consult delays (40%), long ED wait times (38%), transport delays (33%) and slow inter-facility transfers (30%). There is a 50% greater chance of daily communication disconnects negatively impacting patients when secure messaging is not used.

Hospitals that communicate with patients by SMS/text or messaging apps are far more likely to rate their communication methods as effective or extremely effective. 75% of hospitals that use text/SMS and 73% that use messaging apps rate communication with patients as effective or very effective, compared to 62% that primarily use the telephone and 53% whose primary method of communicating with patients is patient portals. The survey also showed that only 20% of patients want to communicate via patient portals.

It has been established that secure messaging can improve communication and the quality of healthcare delivery, but healthcare communication is often not a strategic priority. 69% of surveyed healthcare professionals that are not using a secure messaging platform said this was due to budget constraints, 38% said money was spent on other IT priorities, and 34% cited concerns about patient data security, even though secure messaging platforms offer afar greater security than legacy communications systems.

TigerConnect has made several recommendations on how communication in healthcare needs to be improved.

  • Prioritize communication as a strategy
  • Focus on improving communication to ease major bottlenecks
  • Integrate communication platforms with EHRs to get the greatest value
  • Standardize communication across the entire organization
  • Include clinical leadership in solution design
  • Stop using patient portals to communicate with patients and start using patient messaging in the overall communication strategy.

The survey provides valuable insights into the state of communication in healthcare and clearly shows where improvements need to be made. The full TigerConnect 2019 State of Communication in Healthcare Report is available free of charge on this link (registration required).

The post TigerConnect Survey Finds 89% of Healthcare Providers Still Use Fax Machines and 39% are Still Using Pagers appeared first on HIPAA Journal.