Communications upgrade provides faster response

For rural health care facilities, communication between patients and facilities takes on special urgency. That’s why Amberwell Health, a health system serving northeastern Kansas, engaged MetTel, a leading provider of digital transformation and communication systems headquartered in New York City, to modernize its network and communication systems. 

As Amberwell has grown over the years, the organization’s communication system did not keep up with that growth. Increased call volumes taxed the capabilities of an outdated phone system. The comprehensive upgrade is designed to improve the reliability, efficiencies and integration of the communication and phone system.

To implement a high-quality solution with built-in sustainability, Amberwell first sought to understand its internal communication processes, says Elizabeth Turner, chief marketing and communications officer at Amberwell Health.

“We spent many hours dissecting our individual processes and workflows,” Turner says.

The process and workflow mapping project revealed that the organization needed to redesign how the communication system worked so that patients could more easily access the services and personnel they needed, Turner says.

Amberwell upgraded several components of its system. A new San Jose, Calif.,-based Cisco Webex Unified Communication as a Service platform will enable seamless collaboration among staff across all locations. 

The platform also delivers clearer audio and reliable connectivity for staff. In addition, Amberwell replaced outdated copper lines with MetTel’s DataRemote POTS in a Box to further enhance voice reliability and performance. Finally, a new software-defined wide area network is more efficient, providing faster and more stable performance across the health system.