“The tool meets all important GDPR requirements, is easy to use, convenient to administer and is in no way inferior to WhatsApp when it comes to ad hoc communication.”

A Must-Have for Everyday Nursing Care

Whether outpatient or partial inpatient – care services are on the move around the clock. In order to provide patients with the best possible care, information exchange between nursing staff must be fast and reliable. A professional messaging app like Teamwire, tailored to the requirements of the healthcare sector, provides effective support for mobile internal communication.

This was something adviCura experienced firsthand when they switched from WhatsApp to Teamwire, proving that such a solution is possible even while complying with strict data protection regulations.

Communicate in Compliance with Data Protection Regulations – But Not with Whatsapp

The fact is: In the mobile and semi-stationary nursing service, the nursing staff have to exchange a large amount of data every day. This includes, above all, patient data and medical information, which, from a data protection perspective, must be specially protected as so-called “personal data”.

According to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and national laws like the Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG), certain requirements must be met for the collection, storage and transmission of such data. Examples are no data transfer to the USA (as with WhatsApp or other private instant messaging apps), the need for secure hosting, audit-proof archiving and specific measures that ensure the protection of personal data.

For adviCura it was clear that they could no longer use a messenger like WhatsApp for internal communication, but needed a GDPR-compliant alternative.

Looking for Suitable Alternatives

The data protection aspect was a key requirement of adviCura when looking for a new messenger. At the same time, the care company did not want to have to make any compromises in terms of user-friendliness and handling. The search for an alternative took several months and included many test phases of different tools.

Ultimately, the decision was made to use Teamwire ‘s secure business messenger, which is not only GDPR-compliant, but also offers popular functions such as group chats and broadcasting. Broadcasting is a type of group chat in which only selected users are allowed to send messages and content, while all other members have read-only rights. This allows information to be quickly disseminated to many team members.

“The tool meets all important GDPR requirements, is easy to use, convenient to administer and is in no way inferior to WhatsApp when it comes to ad hoc communication, whether broadcasting or quick exchange in group chats – even in emergency situations.”

– Daniel Mirke, Care Expert (Tüv) and Responsible for Quality Management at adviCura

Alerting Features: When Every Second Counts

Teamwire plays out its advantages in a targeted manner, especially in emergency situations: Nursing staff, who are usually always alone in home care, can send an emergency alarm and request support at any time.

This may be necessary, for example, if a patient has fallen and the nurse cannot get him up without help. Or if the caregiver is injured themselves. The emergency alarm then comes to all nursing staff with a special ringtone and is highlighted in the messenger.

The location of the person seeking help can also be communicated directly. Colleagues who are nearby can directly estimate, how quickly they can get to the scene and coordinate support directly in the messenger.

The alerting function offers faster problem solving in emergency situations than calling all team members, and if calls are needed, live video conferences in Teamwire can help to assess a situation.

Another advantage is that the management and assistants are also informed about the emergency calls. Because at adviCura, Teamwire is also installed in the offices as a desktop version, so that the head office is able to take appropriate measures or support the search for solutions in an emergency situation.

Effective Exchange Within the Team

Even beyond emergency communication, a quick exchange of information for nurses and patients is always an advantage. For example, when it comes to wound care, a second opinion can be obtained quickly, whether from a team or from a specialist. adviCura has a special chat group for this.

Separate thematic groups for employees in day care or home nursing also ensure effective and efficient communication, because each nurse only receives the information they need. In Teamwire, chat messages can be prioritized according to their importance in order to make it easier for adviCura employees to handle information.

“Teamwire fulfills all of our nursing staff’s wishes and needs for a reliable messenger and modern team communication. We can really recommend the messenger for nursing services.”

– Daniel Mirke, Care Expert (Tüv) and Responsible for Quality Management at adviCura

Updates and Knowledge Transfer Are Quick and Easy

Daniel Mirke from Quality Management , for example, also uses Teamwire to make it easier to transfer knowledge within the team: Using the broadcasting function, he sends all team members short video instructions on new infusion systems.

The recipients could then look at them when they had the time and tranquility to do so, and adviCura saved everyone the effort of a large on-site training session. Passwords for servers and systems or service instructions can also be easily transmitted to all employees or the members of a specific group via broadcast.

The messenger is particularly advantageous on weekends and public holidays, when usually only the mobile nursing staff are on the move and nobody is sitting in the office at the central system:

For example, if a patient cancels his outpatient care appointment, this information can be forwarded to the assigned nursing staff instantly.

Central User Management with a Clear Dashboard

Mirke is responsible for the central control of Teamwire and user management. Thanks to the nicely structured administration portal, the nursing expert can easily create access for new team members at adviCura. For this he only needs the e-mail address. With this and a password, the person concerned can log in to Messenger after they have conveniently downloaded the app from the Play or App Store.

Thanks to the dashboard, the administrator always has an overview of all users of the messaging app, even if they do not use a company cell phone but their private smartphone.

In bring-your-own-device (BYOD) environments Teamwire runs through an encrypted app container fully controlled but completely separated from the private data of the user. Teamwire runs on up to three end devices and you can switch between them at any time. Chat histories and data are retained.

Conclusion

Teamwire has now been in use at adviCura for a year and a half. The employees could certainly understand that a new communication solution had to be found to replace WhatsApp for data protection reasons.

Thanks to the intuitive and familiar usability, they quickly accepted Teamwire as the new messenger. The users sum up positively that the solution always runs stably and covers all their use cases.

“In any software application, there is a limit at some point in the depth of application. Because, of course, software cannot optimally solve every little case in multi-professional use. Here it is important to us at adviCura that the contact to the support takes place in a fast and goal-oriented manner. Optimization suggestions for better use should be taken into consideration and implemented if they make sense. The use in the care industry is certainly a challenge for a software company. However, in order to achieve the necessary high level of functionality, Teamwire is a competent partner who accepts and questions suggestions for improvement from users. A high level of mutual understanding and support is very important. That is something that you can find at Teamwire.”

– Daniel Mirke, Care Expert (Tüv) and Responsible for Quality Management at adviCura