A “game-changer” for clinical communications efficiency that consolidates existing tech to meet health service needs.
Melbourne, 23 April, 2024 – Mercy Health is deploying the role-based messaging solution Baret across several departments at two of its Victorian-based hospitals as part of a pilot program.
Dr Oliver Daly, Director of Medical Services at Werribee Mercy Hospital, said that Baret’s role-based messaging functionality was a key factor in selecting the advanced clinical communications tool. “Hospitals are the most complex organisations on the planet. There are so many different teams doing so many different things in a diverse array of environments. Team members have to hand over critical information to each other. That’s where role-based communication comes in. Duties are attached to the role, not the person.”
From a cultural perspective, Dr Daly said that role-based communication has the potential to make a significant positive impact. “It’s amazing. It means that when a health team member finishes their shift, they don’t have a personal to-do list that is left over. They can easily hand over what they need to the next person.”
Developed with input from Austin Health, Baret enables secure, structured, role-based communication across clinical and frontline workers in hospitals and care settings. Dr Daly said that Austin Health’s involvement in the initial development of Baret is part of what made it such an appealing solution. “It’s been built from the ground up in Australia to meet the needs of health services and clinicians. All of the foundation work has been done. For example, the Baret team worked with Austin Health to determine a concise set of clinical communication task types that could be selected for each message. Because of this, so much of it is transferable to other organisations.”
The simplicity of the solution for end-users was another decisive aspect in selecting Baret. “Health professionals do not want communication tools to get in the way of doing their jobs. When you give them too much choice, it gets in the way. Not only does Baret consolidate the number of communication channels available, but it also keeps the number of choices for clinical communication task types within the app to a minimum.”
Baret has been built and delivered as an application inside Microsoft Teams, which Dr Daly said gives it a unique advantage. “By leveraging Teams, Baret lets you find somebody you need to call based on their role from directly within the app. It means you don’t have to have somebody’s individual phone number. It’s a game changer.” Other defining features of the app that appealed to Dr Daly included its clinical photography function, ability to integrate with rosters, including live rostering systems, and effective identity management. The app consolidates information about individuals and their roles into one comprehensive database. “By combining role-based communication with all of its other features, such as system integration and seamless interoperability, Baret emerges as the perfect product.”
According to Dr Daly, part of what makes Baret such a compelling solution is the systems design approach taken. “They’ve taken feedback from and collaborated with health services to inform the development of Baret. In their project and work plans, every priority is aligned with the unique needs of the health service.”
For Baret Chief Technology Officer Jane Prowse, adopting information management best practices is vital to a successful technology roll-out at scale in hospitals and care settings. “Our approach to introducing and integrating new technology solutions into an organisation focuses on three key phases: planning, readiness, and onboarding. Deployment is an incremental process, with each step building upon the last to meet the specific requirements of each health service and to ensure the technology is successfully adopted.”
Post-deployment, Dr Daly said he envisions a future for Baret at Mercy Health where role-based communication is deeply embedded into clinical workflows, supported by underlying interoperability with other systems. “It’s almost about simplifying and unthinking processes. With Baret, everything just works, and you don’t have to think about it. That’s where we want to be with our clinical communications.”
About Mercy Health – Health Services:
Mercy Health’s Health Services include acute and subacute hospital care, mental health programs, specialist women’s and newborns’ health, early parenting education and support, and palliative care in Victoria and New South Wales.
About Baret:
Baret is a secure, targeted role-based messaging solution for Microsoft Teams, launched by FiveP in October 2021. It enables structured communications and assurance of critical information handover across clinical and frontline workers in hospitals and care settings, leveraging the best-in-class security of Microsoft 365.
About FiveP:
Founded in 2013, FiveP is one of Australia’s leading providers of digital products and services to organisations seeking to transform their ways of working with the Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 platforms. Our mission is to help organisations discover new paths to success by providing technology solutions that unlock their potential.
For further information, please contact Matt Krosch – [email protected]