Rauland-Borg connects patients to nurses' iPhones

Remember two months ago when Pasadena, Calif.-based Huntington Hospital was able to consolidate a good portion of its med-surg nursing communications applications onto the iPhone via point-of-care software company Voalté? Looks like others have taken notice.

Chicago-based Rauland-Borg Corp., the big dog in the nurse-call system market, hooked up with the Sarasota, Fla.-based Voalté to give the former a foot in the door with smartphones, and to provide the latter with a new health market for its smartphone apps. "This new technology will help advance communications within hospitals and help expand business opportunities for both of our corporations within the healthcare industry," says Maureen Pajerski, Rauland's vice president for sales.

Voalté certainly gets to piggyback on its far-bigger partner's marketing efforts, company officials tell the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Voalté will be featured in Rauland's HIMSS booth this year, and will have its Voalté One iPhone system installed in Rauland's onsite simulated hospital suite, where Rauland demonstrates its products to hospital execs.

The system will allow nurses to receive text messages, system alerts and direct calls from patients, Voalté officials say. "Currently when a patient hits the bedside nurse call button or pulls the bathroom cord, the system determines the priority and displays it on a screen--Normal, Bath or Emergency Call--and then the appropriate nurse is located and notified," said Trey Lauderdale, Voalte's VP of innovation.

Voalté also has created a similar system for the Blackberry device, possibly making that their next target in the mobile healthcare space.

To learn more:
- read this article in the Herald-Tribune
- check out this Voalté press release