News Release
Miami, Florida (March 10, 2015)
Datatel Communications Inc. The University of Utah College of Nursing partnered with Datatel to develop and implement a telephone-based IVR home hospice symptom management to coach caregivers and monitor patients in their final weeks of life with the objective to increase comfort for patients and improve the well-being of family caregivers.
In the study by the University of Utah College of Nursing of 319 hospice families across four different states, approximately half of the families were randomly assigned to receive the telephone-based IVR (interactive voice response) symptom care intervention, while the other half received the usual symptom reporting alone. Results revealed the symptom care intervention significantly decreased the severity of symptoms in patients than those whom only received the standard hospice care. Furthermore, this intervention improved the well-being of family caregivers and the number of days they experienced moderate to severe symptoms decreased by 44% as opposed to the usual family caregiver group. Benefits for both patients and caregivers were observed as early as the first day after using the IVR system and the trend continued through the rest of the hospice experience.
Lead study author Kathi Mooney, PhD, RN, Distinguished Professor of Nursing at University of Utah College of Nursing and Co-leader of the Cancer Control and Population Science Program at the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City, UT stated, Although this system is the initial prototype version, it clearly shows that using smart technology for symptom monitoring and coaching adds another layer of support during hospice care and provides additional comfort for patients at the end of life, while also helping improve the well-being of family caregivers.
The IVR system for symptom monitoring is programmed to have ‘conversations’ with family caregivers about their own wellbeing in addition to the symptoms their family members experienced in the past 24 hours. Composed of two parts, the first element of the system is automated alerts about the patient’s unrelieved symptoms which were reported to the family’s hospice nurse. The second component provides automated, customizable, real-time coaching for the caregiver depending on the symptoms reported. This coaching provides caregivers support to manage their own wellbeing and their family member’s end of life symptoms as well as explains what to discuss with their hospice nurse.
At the end of the caregiver’s call, electronic alert reports, which can be accessed through a mobile device, are sent to the hospice nurse – increasing the vital communication link between hospice nurses and caregivers.
As the wellbeing of family caregivers is closely affected by the symptoms of their family member, innovative IVR based smart technology to monitor both the patient’s and caregiver’s wellbeing is a powerful tool to enhance the usual home hospice care.
About Datatel
Datatel is a leading provider Secure IVR (Interactive Voice Response) Services on the Cloud. Datatel’s IVR Services are employed by businesses, government and service providers to automate a wide range of caller interactions over the telephone – including payments, voting, surveys, patient communications, and employee tracking applications among others.
Datatel’s IVR success comes from over 26 years of research, development and continuous improvement in delivering IVR service models that provide organizations with reliability, flexibility, and security. As a hosted solution, Datatel maintains all infrastructures, reducing expenses and ensuring rapid and worry-free implementation.
Media Contacts:
Julie Huang
800-831-6660 x 255
We’re Here to Help
Call 1 800 831 6660 or
What our clients are saying about us
“Never any issues with you guys! Things just work.”
“Customer service is a really big deal to us, and I am glad to do business with a company that obviously takes it as seriously as we do.”
“We’re happy with the IVR Payment system and it has been working well for us. Recently we also setup your newest SMS (text) receipts and found it to work great.”
“I want to command you and your team at Datatel on the job just completed for Tele-Response Center. The attention to detail and professionalism with which you approached the project was exemplary and greatly appreciated especially considering the several applications that needed to be implemented on short notice. Thanks again for your assistance getting this project off the ground so smoothly.”
“My team and I would like to commend Datatel on creating an IVR application that adds great value to our new Travel product. Your knowledge, input and expertise in IVR scripting, call flow management and overall IVR logistics made the development and implementation stages extremely easy to manage. Thank you for a well executed campaign that was launched on time and on budget.”
“Great team to work with. I look forward to utilizing some additional capabilities in the future.”
“We are very grateful for many years of mutually beneficial business relationship with Datatel and for impeccable customer service we have received during these years.”
“We, Standard Life, very much appreciated Datatel’s expertise, knowledge and support as we worked through the development and implementation stages. Our Clients appreciate the simplicity of the capability, while gathering very valuable feedback. Thanks for making this a very positive experience.”
“This was one of the best implementations I have been a part of. The communication was excellent and everything was responded to and dealt with swiftly. A real pleasure. We are looking forward to the impact this will have on our patient payments! Thank you!”
