Why Hospitals Record:
Emergency Department and Security Operations Recording

Communication is vital to patient care, security, and operational management for hospitals. Recording voice communications and its associated metadata, such as caller ID and push-to-talk IDs that identify speakers, is critical to mitigating risk and improving operational efficiencies across many departments in a healthcare system. This is particularly important in high-risk, high-liability departments like emergency departments and security operations. Preserving vital information that influences outcomes protects the healthcare system, its employees, outside vendors, and service providers.

Other departments and communication workflows within the hospital have high liability and will benefit similarly when using a mission-critical recording system. Some of these departments and workflows include:

• Emergency to EMT communications
• Telemedicine
• Resource scheduling (ORs, discharges, patient movement, etc.)
• Physical plant maintenance
• Disaster recovery procedures

These communication workflows can automatically be documented, validated for accuracy, and utilized later for process improvement and training.  

Mitigating Liability Through Reliable Recording

Hospitals are exposed to increased liability and the risk of legal action without a reliable recording system. When incidents occur, documented evidence is often the most compelling defense. Hospitals may find it challenging to substantiate the timeliness and appropriateness of responses to patient needs and security incidents without court-admissible recordings. A system like the NexLog DX-Series provides an auditable trail that verifies procedures were followed and standards were met that will stand up in court and significantly reduce a hospital's liability. This level of documentation is critical in demonstrating due diligence and protecting the institution in the event of legal scrutiny. The medical experts who work for the healthcare systems are well-trained and disciplined. However, in the eyes of the patient or injured parties, discipline and training may not be appreciated when an unfortunate negative outcome occurs. Documenting proper performance with communications recordings easily helps avoid protracted legal action.

Accuracy in Emergencies

The clarity of instructions transmitted between doctors and emergency medical technicians is crucial. By recording these exchanges, hospitals can ensure that instructions are accurately communicated, received, and followed. Miscommunication can have significant consequences, so having a reliable recording system, like an Eventide Communications NexLog DX-Series recorder, ensures that any discrepancy can be quickly identified and addressed. Should deficiencies or carelessness be observed in the recordings, those issues can be addressed early and often to maintain personnel training and discipline.

Hospital Security

In recent years, the security of healthcare facilities has become a primary concern. Healthcare professionals face a significant risk of workplace violence, second only to law enforcement. Not limited to verbal confrontation, physical assaults involving an array of weapons are increasingly reported within hospital settings. The repercussions of these incidents are far-reaching, compelling hospitals to adopt more stringent security measures.

Once a rarity, frequent lockdowns are now a common response to potential threats, and systems like Blue Phones are strategically being placed across hospital campuses to fortify security infrastructure. These realities necessitate the need for robust and reliable communication systems to ensure the safety of patients, staff, and visitors.

Recording these interactions supports the immediate response and provides an archive for subsequent analysis, training, and legal defense. Integrating a recording solution into a hospital’s security infrastructure has become essential, reinforcing the hospital's commitment to a secure environment.

Quality Assurance and Operational Enhancement

Recordings are equally used for reactive measures and proactive quality assurance. Hospitals can assess and enhance departmental functions by reviewing recorded communications, including shift handovers, surgical scheduling, and billing procedures. These insights are pivotal in refining staff training and improving service delivery.

By frequently reviewing and scoring personnel’s voice communications, a manager can gauge their staff’s training needs and level of knowledge, urgency, empathy, and adherence to standard operating procedures. Identifying training opportunities, delivering targeted training, and reinforcing standards mitigates risks and helps with employee retention for those looking to move forward in their careers and responsibilities. We all make mistakes, and having a track record of quality assurance scores helps put a mistake into context as either an isolated incident or a trend.  

In today’s world of healthcare, with staffing shortages, rising costs, and reduced coverage payments, driving budgetary efficiency has become paramount. Maximizing employee performance removes budgetary costs by reducing the need for more hiring to fill skills and reducing budget-impacting incidents.

Centralized Management Across Multiple Locations

A key advantage of Eventide Communications' NexLog DX-Series is its capability to record across various hospital locations while maintaining a centralized point for incident reporting and management. This feature is invaluable for hospital networks spread across different geographic locations, ensuring that all communications, whether from an urban hospital's emergency department or a rural clinic's ambulance dispatch, are uniformly captured. By centralizing the management of these recordings, hospitals can streamline incident reviews, maintain consistency in quality assurance, and uphold a high standard of care across all sites. With a NexLog DX-Series recorder, managing the intricacies of a multi-site operation is simplified and more cost-effective, providing hospital administrators with a comprehensive overview of their entire network's communications

NexLog DX-Series recorders offer multi-tenant user tools from one centralized recorder, allowing each department to save recording expenses while keeping their information within their business unit. Eventide’s 80+ integrations for telephony, land mobile radio, radio consoles, and screen capture allow for a single hardware or virtual machine NexLog DX to give users a single pane of glass from which to monitor, replay and score all types of communications quickly and efficiently.

The NexLog DX-Series: A Solution for Hospitals

IP-based Advanced Recording Solutions and Software For Mission Critical 24/7 Communications and Operations.

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Eventide Communications' NexLog DX-Series offers a comprehensive solution tailored to the recording needs of hospitals of all types and sizes. Our systems capture and manage audio and data communications effectively, ensuring that every critical interaction within the hospital ecosystem is documented. From ambulance radio transmissions to intradepartmental communications, we provide the tools to streamline incident reporting and improve communication workflows with an easy-to-use and intuitive user interface. 

NexLog DX recorders are extremely stable purpose-built Linux appliances used by approximately 200 hospitals, 4,000 911 centers, air traffic control in 80 countries, and many defense department operations globally. Eventide will deliver the same reliability and local support that its mission-critical dispatch customers enjoy worldwide in its standard or FIPS 140-2 versions.