Spok Consulting Services Help Sentara Healthcare Make Communications and Collaboration More Efficient

SPRINGFIELD, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Sentara Healthcare has enhanced operator workflows and improved the efficiency of their busy call center by more than 12 percent with the help of Spok Consulting Services. This is especially significant because the call center handles a heavy volume and sends more than 300,000 pages per month.

Sentara engaged Spok to examine the non-profit hospital system’s use of Spok® solutions and recommend process updates that would align operator workflows with the latest industry best practices. After discussing project goals, Spok’s team of experts delivered more than a dozen specific action items to help maximize the call center’s paging capabilities and fully utilize system capabilities.

“We knew a lot about our Spok system, but we certainly didn’t know everything,” said Greg Walkup, IT director at Sentara Healthcare. “From how we’re set up to the operation of our systems, we wanted to know if there were functions we weren’t using and if we could modify our process for better results.”

Walkup outlined several goals for the Consulting Services engagement:

• Evaluate call center efficiency and suggest best-practice improvements
• Increase physicians’ and nurses’ use of the online staff directory to locate colleagues
• Promote use of Spok Mobile®, Spok’s HIPAA-compliant texting app, so clinicians can include patient details securely in their messages (such as filling treatment order requests)

“Although we’ve just begun to implement changes, the consulting engagement has already been an excellent use of our time and resources,” Walkup said. “It has been really worthwhile to uncover some things we didn’t know about. We’re also considering bringing Consulting Services back to do a deep dive into the clinical communications at one of our hospitals and work on the Spok Mobile deployment at that location.”

Healthcare communications are far from static, and hospitals that use Spok solutions can benefit from an occasional re-examination of how products are deployed and how people are using them, noted Brenda Wurst, Spok’s global head of Consulting Services. Wurst led the consulting effort at Sentara Healthcare.

“We’re another pair of eyes to help companies get the most out of their communications and collaboration,” Wurst said. “Because we’re not involved in the day-to-day operations of a company, we often can see efficiencies or workflow improvements that others may have missed. Also, because we see Spok products used in different ways across a number of industries, we often have suggestions on best practices.”

For more information on Spok Consulting Services, visit http://www.spok.com/solutions/professional-services/consulting-services.

About Sentara Healthcare
Sentara Healthcare is an integrated, non-profit health system serving Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. Based in Norfolk, Va., Sentara Healthcare system operates 12 acute care hospitals, as well as advanced imaging centers, nursing and assisted-living centers, outpatient campuses, physical therapy and rehabilitation services, home health and hospice agency, a 3,800-provider medical staff, and five medical groups. In addition, Sentara provides medical transport ambulances and Nightingale air ambulance. It also extends health insurance to 450,000 people through Optima Health, its award-winning health plan. To learn more about Sentara Healthcare, visit www.sentara.com.

About Spok
Spok, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Spok Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPOK), headquartered in Springfield, Va., is proud to be a leader in critical communications for healthcare, government, public safety, and other industries. We deliver smart, reliable solutions to help protect the health, well-being, and safety of people around the globe. Organizations worldwide rely on Spok for workflow improvement, secure texting, paging services, contact center optimization, and public safety response. When communications matter, Spok delivers. Visit us at spok.com or find us on Twitter @Spoktweets.

Spok is a trademark of Spok Holdings, Inc. Spok Mobile is a trademark of Spok, Inc.

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Spok, Inc.

Jill Asby, 952-230-5363

[email protected]

Source: Spok, Inc.