Page 45 - Managing the Mobile Workforce

24 � mAnAgIng the moBIle workForCe

work style is very different than that of the classic office worker who
sits all day at his or her command center (most often a desk with
a phone, computer, book shelves, and—if lucky—a window to the
outside world).
Contrast that with a nurse wearing scrubs with no pockets who
walks four to six miles a day. If a patient or doctor needs to get in
contact with a clinician the matter is usually important and urgent.
Brent’s product is a wearable badge that enables instant communica-
tion between workers no matter where someone is within a building.
All the worker has to do is say the name of the person she wants to
contact, the role that that person plays, or the group in which that
person is a member by using voice commands through her badge. No
hands. Instantaneous communication with any key worker. Maxi-
mum mobility. Problem solved.
But it turns out the business opportunities that come with this easy-
to-use mobility-enabling device are far greater than you might imagine.
For example, Brent’s badges have been used to improve patient
flow. The throughput of an operating room can be increased by using
them to reduce the time it takes to clean the room and coordinate the
next patient coming into the room. That can shrink the backlog of
people waiting, which is also good news for patients and their fami-
lies. Hospital revenues increase too.
Just as important, these wearable devices also increase patient
safety by improving response time so life-threatening events can be
dealt with more quickly. The patient experience in general also im-
proves, because not only is response time faster but the noise level is
lower. There’s no need for loudspeakers to call people. A soft voice
command into a badge fits the ticket. (When will airports figure out a
way to apply this, eh?) Patients can sleep without interruption.
These badges can also improve efficiency by reducing, for example,
the distance a nurse may have to walk. Brent says this kind of com-
munication tool can even affect how buildings are designed. Instead
of needing the classic hospital hub-and-spoke system, where people
shout down hallways to find people, they can be instantly located no
matter where they are. The building can be designed accordingly.