Inefficient communication at a large hospital system

A large public hospital system has an ongoing organization-wide initiative to identify process improvements and streamline workflows. As part of that initiative, they recently discovered that they were inadvertently creating excessively long wait times for emergency department visits.

Hospital staff and first responders had to follow a long chain of steps to alert hospital staff of incoming patients. Furthermore, they had to rely on a complex combination of radios, phone calls, pagers, and an overhead intercom system.

This chain of communication took three to five minutes for every incoming patient. The hospital system fields over hundreds of thousands of emergency visits per year, leading to thousands of hours of wasted time.

Drastically saving staff and patient time with Orion

The hospital equipped paramedics, trauma teams, and the emergency department’s triage nurse with Onyx, Orion’s lightweight voice badge. Onyx enabled paramedics to speak directly with the triage nurse instead of going through the city’s fire dispatch center and the hospital operator. Also, the triage nurse could alert the right trauma team by real-time voice instead of a phone call or pager alert.

Hospital management decided to use more Orion push-to-talk services: they added an Orion Voice Bot. Some hospital staff needed to keep using their pagers, so the team activated an Orion healthcare Voice Bot to transcribe patient alerts into pager alerts. This automation enabled staff to continue using familiar tools while adding Orion voice bot superpowers. The Voice Bot also sends messages to the hospital archives, creating records for later assessment.

As a result, emergency department doctors have more time to consult with their team and prepare a specific treatment plan for each patient they see. Triage nurses now juggle fewer calls and messages. Implementing Orion Voice Bots and Onyx devices has led to less time spent on logistics and resources, fewer errors, and more time spent with patients. Now, the system’s medical teams don’t need to waste time waiting for critical information and can focus on the essential task of caring for people.

Read the whole story

To learn more about how this major US hospital cut Emergency Department wait times by over 60%, read the complete case study.

By Jesse Robbins, Orion Founder and Chairman

I’m proud to announce that the Orion Push to Talk app for iOS is now FirstNet Certified and listed in the FirstNet App Catalog. When first responders use the Orion Push to Talk app on a FirstNet Ready smartphone, teams can respond to emergencies faster and more efficiently.

Orion Push to Talk connects public safety teams anywhere they are with the push of a button. Use the talk button in the app to talk to team members, or add an Onyx wearable to keep your phone in your pocket and still stay in sync with your team.

Last week, we also announced partnerships with the FirstNet Authority and ResponderXLabs to support our mission of improving communication and workflows for public safety. As a firefighter and EMT, I’m excited that today we’re taking take that mission a step further.

What is FirstNet?

FirstNet is the first-ever nationwide communications ecosystem exclusively for public safety. In partnership with the First Responder Network Authority, it brings a much-needed technology upgrade to first responders.

FirstNet helps law enforcement, firefighters and emergency medical service crews stay connected and share the information they need to help keep their communities safe and secure. It gives first responders an “always-on” connection so they can communicate – regardless of crowd size or network traffic.

How Does Orion Help First Responders?

My experiences in firefighting and emergency management repeatedly teach me the value of keeping teams heads up and in sync. With our voice-first platform and next-generation wearables and apps, Orion gives public safety teams a heads-up, eyes-free experience. Because they’re more situationally aware, first responders can communicate without losing focus, across any distance, anywhere in the world.

How Do First Responders Get Orion’s FirstNet App?

Download the FirstNet Certified Orion Push to Talk app directly from the App Store.

Or download the fact sheet to learn all about it:

Get the Orion Push to Talk for FirstNet® Fact Sheet

If you have a question about how Orion can help your public safety organization, contact our sales team at info@orionlabs.io or use the contact form at the bottom of this page. We’ve helped agencies throughout the world improve their public safety efforts.

Alliances will accelerate Orion’s entry into expanding market for real-time voice and location services for first responders

SAN FRANCISCO (Nov. 30, 2018) – Orion Labs, the award-winning mobile voice communication platform for teams, today announced strategic public safety alliances with ResponderXLabs and the FirstNet Association (FNA). Orion is committed to improving communication and workflows for public safety. These partnerships establish Orion as the next generation platform for real-time push-to-talk (PTT) and voice communication for first responders worldwide.

ResponderXLabs fosters a community of innovation to support the growing importance of technology in the public safety sector by showcasing cutting-edge technology specifically curated to solve first responders’ needs. The FirstNet Association is dedicated to the public safety ecosystem that brings together end users of the FirstNet network and those responsible for its continued development, evolution, and maintenance. Orion provides powerful, interoperable, and integrated push-to-talk and voice communication services so that public safety teams can address complex challenges, maintain situational awareness, and stay in sync anywhere.

“It is critical that the advances in mobile, wearable, and voice technologies quickly reach the millions of people who serve and support public safety organizations every day,” said Jesse Robbins, Founder & CEO of Orion Labs. “ResponderXLabs and the FirstNet Association are dedicated to improving and accelerating innovation, adoption of new technologies, and the creation of a new technology ecosystem that serves first responders. We are incredibly excited to collaborate with these organizations on this important mission and grateful for their support.”

“ResponderXLabs is honored to showcase Orion’s leading communication solution for voice, location, and AI-powered services,” said Bryce Stirton, Co-Founder & President of  Responder Corp. “ResponderXLabs and Orion share a common bond as organizations founded by first responders who are passionate about bringing cutting-edge technology with tremendous commercial potential to support the mission of public safety. We are excited to support Orion’s expansion into new offerings for the public safety market and to ensure that first responders have access to the best technology available.”

About Orion Labs

Orion Labs is transforming the way teams collaborate and work using the power of their voice. Orion delivers instant and secure voice and location communication across a constellation of connected devices, applications, and AI-powered services. The Orion Push to Talk app enables mobile teams to communicate without losing focus, on any device, across any distance, without boundaries. Orion also supports mobile devices with dedicated PTT buttons from leading manufacturers. Orion interoperates with traditional radio systems and provides real-time location services through a web-based interface. The company provides a powerful API and SDK for developers to build, integrate, and create new software and services powered by the Orion platform.

Orion was recently named an IDC Innovator, received an Edison Award for Voice & Hearing Technology, and won the 2018 “IoT Wearables Innovation Vendor of the Year” award. The company was founded by cloud infrastructure pioneers Jesse Robbins and Greg Albrecht, who were inspired by their unique experiences using traditional radios as first responders. Orion Labs is backed by leading investors and is based in San Francisco, CA.

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Media Contact

Racepoint Global

Allison DeLeo, 415-694-6700

press@orionlabs.io

Over 5,500 attendees from the public safety communications industry converged upon Las Vegas this month for the annual APCO Conference and Expo. Our Orion team had the privilege of meeting many public safety industry professionals, demonstrating the latest in our Orion Connected Voice Platform and push-to-talk apps. We also showed off voice bots like Panic Bot and Orion Translator, as well as Orion Radio Bridge.

During the show, our team noticed three major themes:

FirstNet Is Growing, Creating a Broader Public Safety Ecosystem

Over the past year, all 50 States plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia signed on to FirstNet, the wireless carrier for first responders. FirstNet’s mission of interoperability for first responders generated considerable interest among attendees at APCO. Visitors to the Orion booth often talked about what FirstNet would mean for their community or their business.

FirstNet is also helping create a broader public safety ecosystem. Manufacturers like Kyocera and Sonim are already certifying their devices for FirstNet. Other critical mobile infrastructure and device players like Samsung and Nokia are taking a stronger position in the market, too. From our experience at APCO, it’s clear that technology players are expanding and evolving to serve the growing needs of FirstNet and the overall public safety market.

New Players Innovate in Public Safety

The public safety technology ecosystem as a whole is growing, too. Public safety communications directors will be able to leverage brand new technologies to provide a high level of service to their communities. We were especially impressed by the new public safety entrepreneur platform Responder Corp and the computer-aided dispatch product Rapid Deploy. We also saw innovative products from Cubic that bridge traditional land mobile radio networks to other mobile services including the Orion Platform via the Orion Radio Bridge.

Public Safety Teams Use Integrations to Solve Tough Problems

As public safety teams adopt more and more technologies, they need those technologies to work together. One effective way to do that is through service and platform integrations. For example, the Orion connected voice platform integrates with the automation service IFTTT. Creating automations on Orion with IFTTT is a flexible way to customize services and tools for public safety teams.

If you visited us at our APCO booth, thank you! You likely have received an email inviting you to talk about how Orion can help your team. If not, email sales@orionlabs.io to continue the conversation.

Would you like us to call you to discuss how Orion’s connected voice platform can help your organization? Click “Contact Sales” at the bottom of this page and add your contact information.