Release Date: Friday, February 18, 2011

Only a decade ago, contemplating a switch from traditional telephone systems to wireless VoIP technology made most healthcare IT executives squirm. Many viewed sole reliance on unproven wireless IP telephony as a significant risk, especially when considering how crucial voice communications are to the inner workings of a hospital. Providers were just starting to implement wireless networks for the most basic usage, and most were not considering the additional technical requirements of wireless VoIP.

This study assesses vendor performance for wireless communication devices, such as phone handsets or badges, that use VoIP or IP-DECT technology for voice communication within hospitals. Providers typically use these devices for clinician-patient communication, clinician-clinician communication, inter-hospital communication with various departments, and various clinical alerts.

Preliminary research and interviews with providers helped KLAS identify the five internal wireless voice communication vendors with the greatest mindshare: Ascom, Avaya (including acquired Nortel assets), Cisco, Polycom (Formerly SpectraLink), and Vocera. Ascom and Avaya did not have a sufficient number of live sites surveyed to meet the minimum KLAS Konfidence level, but early performance data is shown where applicable. A total of 110 surveys were collected for this study from providers using wireless Voice-over IP (VoIP) or IP-DECT devices from one of these five vendors.

Non-Provider Price: $9,850
Provider Price: $980