In recent years, the healthcare industry has been facing a pivotal shift on the communication front, with smartphones outpacing pagers as the tool of choice. So, I want to highlight how this shift came to be and why legacy pager systems fall short in the era of real-time communication and collaboration. From patient outcomes to streamlining workflows, I will uncover how HIPAA-compliant mobile technology is transforming the way doctors, staff, and patients communicate. 

Doctors’ History with Pagers

Before we get into why pagers are going away, I want to discuss how they came to be, as it was a huge step towards the critical communication technology we have today. Al Gross created the first-ever pager in 1949, which was used solely by emergency teams like medical professionals for nine years until 1958, when it was finally approved for public usage. While these were slightly different than the pagers we saw in the ’80s and ’90s, the concept was the same for care teams – doctors can reach each other from opposite sides of the hospital during emergencies to mobilize them to the scene – and the rest was history. 

Challenges with Pagers

As mobile communication continued to advance, more and more limitations were seen with the legacy pager, especially when it came to time-sensitive healthcare communications like: 

Security Concerns – One of the largest obstacles when it comes to pagers is security. Pagers are not inherently HIPAA-compliant and are easily hacked, making communications a little more complex than necessary. To ensure the privacy of patients, care teams must write short, cryptic pages that don’t contain any sensitive PHI. But, even still, teams cannot really monitor pages to ensure that no PHI is being exchanged over these devices, making it that much more of a concern. 

Unreliable – When you send a page via a pager, it is impossible to identify the status of the message or if the message even was sent. If the recipient of a page is too far away or has no signal and the page never gets to them, the sender is none the wiser and just has to hope that their message was seen. This is unacceptable in a healthcare setting when people’s lives are on the line. 

Lack of integration – If you still aren’t convinced that pagers are outdated, then the lack of integration is sure to make you see where I’m coming from. If teams are looking for a siloed, unreliable, unsophisticated solution to their communications, then be my guest; maybe a pager is what you are looking for…but probably not. As technology continues to advance, we are seeing an increase in interoperability and teams searching for solutions that seamlessly work together. Pagers cannot do this either…SHOCKER! 

So aside from being a clunky hunk of plastic clipped to your hip, pagers don’t even empower teams to be as efficient as possible; if anything, they create more manual labor for doctors who should be spending their time with patients. 

But I digress because there are still some valid reasons for pushback by care teams wanting to maintain their pagers. 

The Argument for Pagers

We have seen it before: new technology and updated processes are a greenhouse for employee pushback. People always want to stick to their way of doing things, and hey, I can’t blame them, but once you get over the learning curve, you know you will usually be happier in the long run. However, as I said before, some of their arguments make sense, like: 

How will I maintain a good work-life balance? Many doctors are worried that if their communications are on their personal devices, they will be unable to separate work from home because they can’t just leave their pagers in their locker or a drawer at home.

Believe me, work-life balance is incredibly important, so I can see where care teams are coming from. However, with clinical communication and collaboration (CC&C) applications, it is simple to just switch your pager off when you are not scheduled to be on-call, basically turning your phone back to vacation mode 😎 Plus, with advanced mobile communication solutions, teams can create schedules so that alerts and messages directly reach the on-call team so doctors will never be paged when they are off-the-clock (yes, not even accidentally). 

Aren’t pagers more reliable? I’ll give you the short answer: no. Pagers are often seen as the more reliable option, but that’s not the case anymore because of the ubiquity of Wi-Fi these days. Now, hospitals can ensure wireless coverage throughout the hospital with multiple access points or mesh networks and repeaters. These strategies will further improve reliability of not only CC&C tools, but internet access in general, enabling teams to overcome dead zones and extend signals to areas with spotty coverage. This is a stark contrast from the past, when doctors had to rely on cell service that often couldn’t penetrate through the hospital walls in a way that paging signals could. But with fewer and fewer paging towers, lost pages are getting more common and geographical barriers more prominent.

So, clearly, this is an outdated frustration of using cell phones. Most CC&C applications can function across Wi-Fi and mobile data, making it more reliable in this day and age, as most healthcare facilities have access to Wi-Fi, allowing messages to always come through. Pages often don’t go through due to their outdated design and minimal upkeep, and there is no way to track them. With advanced CC&C solutions, teams gain visibility into the status of their message, so in the unlikely case that the message wasn’t delivered, the sender will know immediately if they must try again or resend the message to a different responder. 

Hopefully, this has cleared up a few things. While I see why teams may be hesitant and resist the change, implementing a CC&C solution can often overcome and exceed the expected challenges. 

10 Reasons Smartphones Outpace Pagers

Real-Time Communications – Clinical communication applications enable teams to facilitate real-time, two-way conversations during critical events. No need to worry about whether the doctor will still be on the other line by the time you get their page. 

HIPAA-Secure Messaging – With CC&C apps, teams can gain access to encrypted messaging that ensures their HIPAA compliance in a way that pagers can’t. Now, teams can send messages with full context while still maintaining patient safety. 

Integrations with Existing Health Systems – Before, alarms were dispersed throughout the hospital with no centralization. If an infusion pump senses bubbles within the IV line, the alarm may go off, requiring a medical professional to be in the room to hear it and then fix the issue. CC&C solutions can centralize these alarms and integrate them with various health systems, ensuring that care teams are notified of IV issues no matter where they are in the hospital. 

Multi-Channel Communication – With pagers, teams can only send cryptic text messages with no context attached. CC&C applications enable teams to add attachments to their messages, including voice memos, documents, and images, so that teams have full visibility into the patient event even before they get to the scene. 

More Reliable – As mentioned previously, modern smartphone applications are more reliable than pagers due to modern infrastructure that allows teams to reach each other across multiple networks and even see the status of their messages in real time. 

Scalability – Growing teams can upgrade their CC&C solution to better match their needs. They can benefit from advanced features, including digital fail-safe scheduling and HIPAA-compliant texting. 

Cost-Effective – When it comes to pagers, teams have high costs to ensure that they are maintained, especially with a disintegrating infrastructure. Modern pager applications are cost-effective, only requiring teams to pay for the licenses that can be accessed on their pre-existing devices. 

Improved Team Collaboration – Pagers are often only able to facilitate one-way communication, requiring doctors to hop on a call or physically find the message sender. With CC&C tools, teams can collaborate back and forth right from the app via text, voice, and attachments. 

Patient-Centric Features – CC&C applications enable patients to connect easily with their providers in a way that is impossible when using pagers. All patients have to do is call their doctor’s office, and the physician receives a digital call or page right on their mobile device, ensuring that patients are always immediately connected to their care team. 

Adaptability – With CC&C solutions, teams can continuously benefit from new features and integrations as their organization grows. Additionally, most CC&C applications offer multiple plans that you can tailor to your organization’s goals and preferences. 

OnPage as a Pager Replacement

Look no further for a pager replacement; OnPage is the best clinical communication and collaboration platform! 

But don’t just take my word for it, these are some of OnPage’s strong capabilities that improve healthcare team collaboration: 

Loud, Distinguishable Alerts that bypass do not disturb and the silent switch, ensuring that doctors are always immediately mobilized to critical incidents and never miss messages about urgent patient situations

HIPAA-Compliant Messaging allows care teams to deliver contextual messages to each other without worrying about sensitive patient data being stolen. Plus, all attachments and voice notes are secure as well, ensuring that teams can make informed decisions before they even reach the scene. 

Role-Based Messaging and Automated Routing for teams to ensure that they are reaching the right physician every single time. All you have to do is create the on-call schedule, then once a message is sent to the on-call cardiology team, for example, the notification is immediately routed to the cardiologist on-call at that time. 

Conclusion

Clearly, pagers are so out, and CC&C solutions are so in. With the recent advancements made in the healthcare sector, there is no reason to be subjecting your team to such outdated, archaic technology. Solutions like OnPage are sure to push your team forward and improve collaboration across healthcare disciplines.