Melbourne
Melbourne-based Microsoft partner FiveP has launched a new Teams-based app for the Victorian Heart Hospital (VHH).
Known as Baret, the role-based messaging app enables the new hospital to operate without pagers, something the institution claims to be a first for Australia.
Baret was initially deployed at Monash Health across their five hospitals in August last year. It was designed to speed up communication between hospital staff and clinicians and consolidate various communication methods.
“Staff at the VHH don’t have pagers. We want staff at our other locations to use Baret to connect in with staff at the VHH and to use Baret as the clinical communication app within the VHH itself,” said associate professor Michael Franco, chief medical information officer and program director of EMR and informatics at Monash Health.
The Baret deployment was also intended to reduce the volume of internal switchboard calls.
Franco also said that clinical communications and Baret are now central to the organisation, in addition to other changes at VHH.
“One of the things we're thinking about at the moment is consolidating communication policies. The status quo isn’t fit for purpose now that we operate in a modern working environment,” he said.
Jane Prowse, FiveP Australia chief technology officer, said that Monash Health capitalised on its knowledge from the initial deployment to launch the VHH.
“Monash Health drew on the experience gained from using Baret at their other campuses to inform their greenfield deployment, incorporating best practice clinical communication from the outset for the new hospital,” she added.
During the pandemic, FiveP, alongside QTec and Utilitise IT, also helped bring Microsoft Teams to Austin Hospital in Melbourne.
