Healthy ambitions
Orange has rolled out a healthcare service called smartnumbers, designed to make communication between healthcare professionals and patients more efficient.
The service seeks to cut the time it takes to contact healthcare professionals by giving callers instant access to the best person or team available. Orange ambitiously said it will let patients and healthcare workers reach the right person on their first attempt every time.
The mobile firm has dubbed its healthcare specific service a ‘first' among mobile operators, as it bolsters its place in the e-health market alongside the likes of Telefónica, Intel and Cisco.
While it is Orange's first activity in the UK health industry, the company has had a healthcare division in Europe for four years.
Orange said smartnumbers gives patients and healthcare workers access to the best-placed person to handle their call, improving the accessibility of individuals and teams.
"For example, if a doctor on duty is unavailable to answer a call, it will be diverted to the appropriate colleague or team. The solution enables greater flexibility, control and monitoring of calls - empowering employees and informing managers," it said.
It found effective communication is particularly problematic for community-based healthcare staff such as midwives and nurses, with 60 percent of ordinary call attempts to colleagues failing to reach the right person on the first attempt.
The company believes time saved trying to locate and reach colleagues outside GP surgeries or hospitals by using smartnumbers could be used to boost patient care.
It has partnered with Resilient Network to provide the service, which is said is low cost and simple to implement, but could help different parts of the health care service meet service quality and efficiency targets.
Martin Stiven, VP of business at Everything Everywhere said: "We believe that there is huge potential for mobile communications to help the UK healthcare industry to provide better services to the public and increase efficiencies at the same time."
The partnership with Resilient Network as part of the company's Everything Everywhere initiative is its ‘first step in our drive into the healthcare market,' he added.
