Finnish Hospital Becomes First in World to Adopt Ascom Myco Healthcare Smartphones

Kuopio University Hospital (KUH) in Finland has become the first in the world to start using the Ascom Myco, a smartphone specially designed for mission-critical communications in hospital and healthcare environments. KUH has introduced Ascom Myco in its neonatal intensive care unit.

"It’s of course wonderful news that KUH became the first hospital in the world to start using the Ascom Myco,” says Ari-Pekka Tenko, Director of Sales and Marketing at Ascom Finland. "But it’s especially gratifying to see Ascom Myco used in such a demanding and important area as neonatal intensive care.”

KUH’s interest in the unique Ascom Myco smartphone was prompted by the hospital’s adoption of a new ‘family room’ care model. Under this model, newborns are cared for in private family rooms, allowing parents to stay overnight together with their baby. Research suggests such an environment may improve the prognosis for newborns, and shorten their hospital stays.

"The new model allows mothers to stay with their babies. Mother and baby are never separated, not even if one of them is sick," states Nurse Mila Hilden, Project Manager at KHU’s neonatal intensive care unit.

The new care model did, however, increase alarm notification response times. With newborns dispersed across multiple private rooms, nurses had to walk further to consult alerts on a monitor. "Solving this issue was problematic,” says Juhani Kouri, Project Manager at KHU. "We couldn’t have alert notifications sounding all over the unit, as newborns are particularly sensitive to sound stimulus. Preventing such disturbances can result in significant benefits, as it may help avoid lifelong medical conditions for the newborn. So we really needed a smarter way to manage alarm notifications and nurse calls if we were to adopt the new care model.”

The solution was the Ascom Myco. The smartphones, together with the advanced staff duty-assignment software Ascom Unite Assign, are now connected to the hospital’s patient monitoring equipment and nurse call system and are contributing to safer, more efficient care for mothers and newborns.

"Patient monitor alerts are now directed to an individual nurse’s Ascom Myco smartphone,” comments Tenko. "The nurse will see what sort of alarm she or he is dealing with, its urgency, and which patient it concerns. If the nurse is unable to respond, the alarm is redirected to a designated backup nurse. Ascom Myco reduces the risk of an alert being ignored, as notifications are not automatically sent to all nurses, but go only to those who are responsible for a specific newborn”.

Find out more about Ascom Myco at www.ascommyco.com.

ABOUT ASCOM WIRELESS SOLUTIONS

Ascom Wireless Solutions (www.ascom.com/ws) is a leading provider of innovative communication solutions providing integrated workflow intelligence for hospitals, senior care, and independent living, and other business areas where mission-critical communication is essential. Approximately 100 000 systems are installed globally. The company offers a broad range of voice and professional messaging solutions, creating value for customers by supporting and optimizing their mission-critical communication processes. The solutions are based on Cellular, VoWiFi, IP-DECT, Nurse call and Paging technologies, smartly integrated via Ascom Unite into existing enterprise systems. The company has subsidiaries in 13 countries and 1,200 employees worldwide. Founded in 1955 and based in Göteborg, Sweden, Ascom Wireless Solutions is part of the Ascom Group, listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange (ASCN:SIX).

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