Mercy Hospice modernises communications systems

Mercy Hospice Auckland, a not for profit group providing palliative care for people with life-limiting illnesses, has modernised its communications systems using Cogent and Alcatel-Lucent technologies.

The group first implemented the Alcatel Lucent’s OpenTouch Suite, including wireless network, unified communications and mobility services, at the hospice and seven retail shops across Auckland in June.

“We really started with zero unified communication capabilities,” said Michael Misomphane, IT co-ordinator at Mercy Hospice Auckland.

“We had a standard PBX-based telephony system that only offered voice calls,” he said in a statement. “The majority of our organisation ran on wired connectivity and we relied on AirPort Express for limited wireless connectivity through some parts of our site.”

The project helped establish a cost-effective, connected infrastructure in order to improve the experience for our in-patients by providing them with a broad range of reliable and robust communications, such as email and live chat, to better connect patients with family and friends, he said.

“Our nurses also now have the tools to engage and collaborate on the fly in order to spend more time with patients and less time on the phone.”

The initial deployment took three months. The hospice is now testing the My Instant Communicator mobile application for the second phase of the project.

This application will deliver advanced unified communication services to Apple iPhone and Android mobile devices. It will provide single identity, directory lookup, enterprise telephony and call routing control.

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