1. Breaking the Pager Barrier
How Hennepin County
Medical Center Solved Their
Communication Problem
A TelmedIQ Customer Success Story
www.telmediq.com
“TelmedIQ allowed us to implement a secure end-to-end communication system
beyond just a secure HIPAA compliant texting app. It helped us evaluate our
communications not just from a physician end-user perspective, but holistically and
across the continuum of care.”
Matthew Werder, CTO
Hennepin County Medical Center

2. Addressing Communication Gaps Caused by
Outdated Technology
The Problem with Pagers
With a 472-bed hospital and over 50 primary care clinics distributed
throughout the Minneapolis—St. Paul area, Hennepin County Medical Center
depends on their communication network to assure patient satisfaction and
safety. As Minnesota’s premier level 1 adult trauma center processing over
21,000 discharges annually, having a reliable, intuitive two-way communication
channel linking hospitalists and clinicians is a must-have.
Like most frontline healthcare organizations, HCMC had been relying on a
steadily eroding pager network for more than a decade. Not only were pagers
incapable of providing the communication functionality of even your most
basic smartphone—they were contributing to increased patient discharge
times and extra administrative activities for clinicians. A change was needed.
Nurse-to-Physician Communications
Dropped calls, unreturned messages, and the inability to quickly contact the correct physician
provider were taking their toll on the organization’s clinicians and their ability to coordinate
care expediently.
Administration and Visibility
With pagers, the demands on a clinician’s time for tracking messages, updating communications
data in an EMR, and returning phone calls were consuming more than 50% of nurses’ on-shift time.
HIPAA Compliance and Security
Pagers, by nature, are insecure. With no encryption or other security measures messages
containing PHI were easily at risk of breach. Furthermore, messages sent to pagers were nearly
impossible to track and audit.
Continuity in Communications
Messages on pagers did little to provide context during patient handoffs. The inability to transfer
in-depth and real-time updates on a patient status from one physician to another meant costly
breakdowns in communication.

3. Why a Secure Messaging App Alone Wasn’t Adequate
Why TelmedIQ
When Hennepin County Medical Center first implemented a secure
HIPAA-compliant text messaging solution, they found that while providing
the convenience of real-time messaging, the solution had a low adoption
rate amongst its 5000 member care staff. Staff were reluctant to give up
their pagers because of the clinical workflows that they had developed
around them.
HCMC needed their secure messaging solution to integrate with their
on-call scheduling solution, EMR system, and existing pager network, as
well as the ability to tailor the app to seamlessly plug in to their unique
workflows—such as custom message triage for critical labs values. Only
TelmedIQ offered these functionalities.
Dedicated Pager on Mobile
Hennepin County physicians can keep
their pager numbers and send pages
to a dedicated inbox on their existing
mobile phones.
Integrations and Customizations
Integrations with Amion, Epic
and a custom integration with
Hennepin’s Active Directory ensure
communication data interoperability.
Automatic Routing and Workflow
Messages are automatically routed to
the right people and groups based on
on-call schedule and message category.
Legacy Pager Networks
TelmedIQ’s seamless integration with
existing pager networks means physi-
cians can keep pagers as needed—if
you really want.
VoIP and Seamless Callback
Built-in VoIP allows users to call back
with one tap from a message—while
keeping their phone numbers private.
Intelligent Real-time Messaging
Routing and escalation rules allow
rapid mobilization of specific care
teams during trauma events while
minimizing overhead.
“While other vendors forced us to use their app the way they saw it, TelmedIQ’s SmartPager app
gave us the flexibility to customize the solution to our needs and that of our staff.
Overall, TelmedIQ has been amazing. The level of intelligence and automation around routing of
messages and finding the right user or group has really has sped up coordination of patient care
and discharge times. The physicians also love the fact that they can keep a pager number on
their smartphones.”Matthew Werder, CTO
Hennepin County Medical Center

4. About TelmedIQ:
Secure messaging and clinical communications
designed specifically for the healthcare industry
TelmedIQ develops intelligent mobile and cloud-based applications that give healthcare organizations a
flexible and integrated solution for HIPAA compliant secure text messaging, mobile paging, and policy based
message routing.
TelmedIQ helps over 300 healthcare organizations and 10,000 physicians improve communications, workflow,
and security—including some of the largest health systems in the U.S. such as Tenet and Banner Health.
Compatible with:
Learn more about TelmedIQ
Visit www.telmediq.com/solutions to learn more about TelmedIQ’s
communication applications for healthcare.
OR
Contact us directly to schedule a live demo of TelmedIQ’s features and capabilities.
e. sales@telmediq.com
p. 1.888.364.9305