Nuance - Healthcare Solutions

Veriphy Is Optimized For Critical Test Result Communications

Veriphy is the industry-leading solution for CTRM, which automates the delivery, verification of receipt, and documentation of voice communications concerning critical test results (CTRs). For Radiology, Cardiology, Laboratories, and other departments that want to verify and document critical test communications. Veriphy includes the capability to incorporate automated read-backs by the nurse or other caregivers, satisfying the Joint Commission’s read-back requirement of critical test information.

Veriphy is a hosted solution and requires no new hardware or software investments.

When a hospital subscribes to the service, the Veriphy technical team builds the communications directory of referring physicians, helps the hospital identify or create their critical test policies and then sets up the system for use. The Veriphy solution is easily adaptable to the working preferences of most clinicians.

Veriphy Satisfies Clinical And Administrative Needs

For Clinicians

Veriphy offers reporting clinicians one-call-does-it-all simplicity and also assures that the CTR has been retrieved by the responsible ordering clinician. A reporting clinician creates a message from a phone or computer, and Veriphy does the rest: alerts the ordering clinician that the CTR is pending; indicates the urgency of the CTR—sends alerts until the message is retrieved; escalates the notification according to pre-set rules; sends a verification to the reporting clinician when the message has been retrieved—all while documenting the entire communication process to support audit and survey requirements.

For Administrators

Veriphy provides department administrators with tools for real-time performance measurement. Administrators and clinicians are able to establish performance goals and targets for CTR turnaround time (TAT) and assess compliance.

This enables administrators to detect patterns and trends of non-compliance quickly and easily. With this kind of visibility, hospital administrators can take action quickly whenever patients and the institution are at risk due to communication delays and failures. The Veriphy system closely follows the guidelines and recommendations of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors. Hospitals that use Veriphy report that they receive high marks from surveyors for the Joint Commission.

The American College of Radiology (ACR) has taken Veriphy’s capabilities into account in drafting its Practice Guidelines for radiological communications. Simply put, if a hospital uses Veriphy for CTRM, it will meet the requirements of the Joint Commission, ACR, and College of American Pathologists (CAP).

For Patient Safety and Risk Management

Communicating CTRs is a major problem for hospitals. There are almost 12 billion tests done annually, which generate 2-3 million calls daily from Radiology, Laboratories, Pathology and Cardiology to ordering physicians, nursing units, and care teams. Before Veriphy, communication of CTRs was a manual process with no master directory of contact preferences, no standard technology to automate both the initial communication and verification of receipt, and no metrics to measure performance against goals or standards.

The ACR specifically addresses the communication of non-routine or unexpected findings in its Practice Guidelines. The guidelines of both the Joint Commission and ACR require hospitals to have systems for communicating and documenting the CTRM process. In 2007, the CAP updated its certification checklist of laboratories to indicate whether a lab uses automated CTRM.

In 2006, nearly two-thirds of all hospitals surveyed by the Joint Commission failed to meet the requirements of the National Patient Safety Goal #2: Improve the effectiveness of communication among caregivers. These hospitals would have met the requirements if they had used Veriphy for CTRM. Veriphy is now the preferred CTRM solution for all diagnostic departments: Radiology, Pathology, Cardiology and Clinical Laboratories.

• One step process to create a report and initiate Veriphy notification and tracking.
• Actively notifies the ordering clinician via mobile phone, pager, fax, or e-mail that a critical test result is pending.
• Provides automatic tracking of messages; indicates the severity of the finding; continues to send notifications until the message is received by someone responsible for patient care.
• Alerts the sender when a message has or has not been picked up.
• Automatic backup notices sent to secondary contacts after a time threshold; verifies that the message was received, by whom and when.
• Simple voice command interface enables the ordering clinician to respond or read-back results.
• Stores all voice messages in a searchable archive for years.
• Provides a web-based interface with enhanced features to view all data including detailed reports on all communications. Includes comprehensive clinician directory.
• Message monitoring and intervention available 24/7.
• Automates compliance with JCAHO and HIPAA rules.

Veriphy Makes Your Job Easier and Your Patients Safer

The essence of Veriphy is verified direct clinician communications.

It is easy to use and adapts to fit the working preferences of most clinicians. The automation features ensure reporting consistency within departments, across diagnostic departments, and across hospital systems. To report a critical patient finding to an ordering clinician, the reporting clinician calls an assigned Veriphy phone number or uses Veriphy Desktop once, speaks the medical communications, and Veriphy literally does the rest.

Veriphy's core application is a hosted solution that requires no investment in hardware or software. Once a hospital subscribes to the service and Vocada's technical team builds the Veriphy Communications Directory of referring clinicians, the advanced communications system is ready for use.

1. The reporting clinician creates a voice message by speaking over the phone or through a microphone on a PC.
2. Instant notifications are sent to the ordering clinician via pager, cell phone, fax, and e-mail. The ordering clinician dials a toll-free number and enters a secure code to listen to the message from the reporting clinician.
3. The reporting clinician is alerted when the message has been retrieved. Escalation notifications are automatically sent to the ordering and reporting clinicians when a message has not been picked up within a pre-set timeframe.

Veriphy on Your Desktop

Veriphy Desktop, an optional add-on application, is the perfect "workflow-friendly" feature for reporting clinicians who prefer the convenience of reporting from a desktop or laptop computer.

• Elegantly friendly user interface.
• Reporting clinician creates an e-mail-like message, and speaks the report of the critical patient finding into the computer microphone.
• When the clinician has finished speaking the report, he or she clicks "Send" and it's done.
• Message creation and message monitoring are all built in.
• As a downloadable application, Veriphy Desktop is easy to install on any PC.

Veriphy on the Web

This feature is available for hospital or department managers who see Critical Test Result Management as a pathway to greater patient safety and better patient outcomes.

• Provides an up-to-the-minute report showing how individual clinicians, a department, or a hospital as a whole is performing against established goals and targets.
• Enables a hospital to create benchmarks and measure improvement in communications.
• Enables an administrator — with a click of a mouse — to see all relevant performance data on his/her computer screen at will.

Frequently Asked Questions

Below are answers to our most frequently asked questions.

What is it exactly?
Veriphy is a hosted communication system that merges voice and data technology to ensure fail-safe, verifiable, direct communication between diagnostic departments and ordering clinicians. But importantly, it is more than a technology platform; it is a comprehensive CTRM solution that ensures a smooth implementation, performance assessment and adoption of best practices.

Why do I need it?
Studies have shown that a large proportion of medical malpractice claims result from communication failures, delays and breakdowns, rather than from errors in diagnosis.

The Joint Commission now requires hospitals to take specific steps to improve communications among care givers. Veriphy makes compliance easy. Hospitals that use Veriphy have been told by Joint Commission surveyors that they are employing "best practice" with Veriphy.

From a patient safety and risk management perspective alone, Veriphy is a smart investment. It also eliminates the phone tag, and wheeling-spinning that sap productivity in busy hospitals and clinics.

Sounds great, but is it complicated to use?
Veriphy is as simple to use as an ordinary telephone. You make one call to report on an urgent or unexpected patient finding and Veriphy literally does the rest.

Do I need to buy new hardware and software?
Since Veriphy is a hosted system, it requires no investment in hardware or software and poses no concern about built-in obsolescence. The Veriphy Desktop feature is a downloadable application that installs easily on your PC or laptop.

Do I get charged for long distance calls or other usage charges?
Every authorized user accesses the system through a toll-free number or a local number with no line charge fees.

How many ordering clinicians can I communicate with?
There is no limit on the number of ordering clinicians who can be included in the system directory.

Does Veriphy work with pagers and cell phones?
Veriphy notifies the ordering clinician by whatever means the clinician prefers, including mobile phones, pagers, e-mail, and fax.

What kind of message tracking does Veriphy use?
You can track any message by logging into the Veriphy secure web site.

How can I be sure an ordering clinician gets a message?
Veriphy's fail-safe system sends several notifications until a message is listened to. You will receive a notification confirming when a message is actually retrieved and the receipt is documented and logged in the system.

Are message transactions stored?
The original voice messages and the documentation are stored in the system for as long as your institution is a customer and can be easily searched and reviewed.

Do the ordering clinicians need new equipment?
No. No equipment other than a telephone is required.

Do the ordering clinicians need to pay to use the service?
No. Ordering clinicians do not pay to use the system.

Who pays for the service?
The hospital pays for access to the system.

How much does it cost?
The cost is based on the size of the hospital and diagnostic department(s). For more information, please contact a sales representative.

Any limits on how long a message can be?
No.

How many messages can we create?
Unlimited.

Do we need a minimum number of radiologists participating in the program?
Three is the necessary minimum.

How often can I listen to a message?
Unlimited.

What if my message is not listened to by the ordering clinician?
The ordering clinician will receive several notifications until he or she retrieves the message(s).

Can I send a message to more than one ordering clinician?
You can send a message to any number of ordering clinicians as long as they are in the system directory.

What if an ordering clinician is not in your system?
The system only communicates to clinicians who are in the system directory.

Can I call from any phone? Can I use any computer?
You can call from any phone and you can use any computer that has Internet access.

How do I know if an ordering clinician has listened to my message?
The system notifies you when a message has been retrieved and the time/date is documented in the system.

Case Studies

• Memorial Hermann Southeast Hospital Sails Through a Surprise Joint Commission Survey, Thanks to Veriphy

Datasheets

• Veriphy