TeraMail Instant Messaging for Hospitals
Use the Smartphones Your Medical Personnel Already Carry
Add the message-delivery reliability required for hospital communications.
TeraMail, TeraMessage Mobile, and PageRouter provide hospitals with a private communication platform designed for the reliable delivery of time-sensitive messages and notifications.
TeraMail connects personnel working from computers, dispatch workstations, and tablets. TeraMessage Mobile connects personnel using smartphones. PageRouter manages communications between users and can also receive messages and notifications generated by Nurse Call, alarm, and other hospital systems.
Hospitals do not need to replace the smartphones their personnel already use or the hospital systems already in operation.
Use the smartphones your medical personnel already want to use—but give hospital communications the specialized delivery reliability, attention mechanisms, protection, logging, and integration that time-sensitive hospital messaging requires.
Reliable Delivery of Time-Sensitive Messages
Sending a message is easy. Delivering an urgent hospital message promptly and reliably to personnel moving throughout a hospital is a different requirement. Hospital personnel continuously move between patient rooms, corridors, departments, floors, and other areas of the building. Their smartphones move between Wi-Fi access points and coverage areas, and network connectivity can sometimes be temporarily interrupted. TeraMessage Mobile was engineered for this operating environment. If communication with PageRouter is interrupted, TeraMessage Mobile automatically attempts to re-establish its connection, transparently to the user. When communications become available again, pending messages can be delivered. On supported devices and configurations, TeraMessage Mobile can communicate using available hospital Wi-Fi or cellular data connectivity. No smartphone application can deliver a message while every communication path to the device is unavailable, the smartphone is turned off, or its battery is depleted. TeraMessage Mobile is engineered to maximize reliable and prompt delivery despite the connectivity interruptions that can occur as medical personnel move throughout a hospital.
Delivery Is Only Part of the Requirement
An urgent message must not only reach the smartphone. It must get the recipient's attention.
TeraMessage Mobile includes notification features designed for time-sensitive communications. If a message has not been read, the application can continue calling the recipient's attention to the pending message rather than assuming that a single notification was sufficient.
Deliver it promptly. Get the recipient's attention. Know what happened.
Instant Two-Way Hospital Communications
TeraMail and TeraMessage Mobile provide instant two-way communications between authorized hospital personnel. A nurse, supervisor, dispatcher, receptionist, or other authorized user working with TeraMail can send a message to an individual or Group. Medical personnel using TeraMessage Mobile receive the message on their authorized smartphones and can respond directly. TeraMessage Mobile users can communicate with TeraMail users and other authorized TeraMessage Mobile users. TeraMail users can also exchange messages with other TeraMail users. This creates a private hospital communication environment connecting personnel working from computers, tablets, and smartphones.
Send More Than Text Messages
Authorized users can also exchange images, documents, and other files through the same protected communication environment.
This allows hospital personnel to communicate information that cannot always be conveyed effectively through a short text message while maintaining the communication within the PageRouter environment.
Protected Messages and Files
Communications between TeraMail and PageRouter are protected using TLS 1.3. Communications between PageRouter and the iOS version of TeraMessage Mobile are also protected using TLS 1.3. The Android version of TeraMessage Mobile communicates with PageRouter through a bidirectional encrypted TCP/IP connection. Messages and files stored by PageRouter pending authorized access are encrypted, protecting their contents while stored within the communication system. This allows authorized hospital personnel to exchange messages, images, documents, and other files through protected communication channels rather than relying on ordinary consumer messaging services for hospital communications.
TeraMail — Designed for Hospital Dispatch Operations
TeraMail was designed for personnel who need to originate, receive, find, forward, and track messages quickly from a PC, tablet, or touchscreen.
Its interface was developed from direct observation of hospital switchboard and communications operations, where speed and immediate access to information are essential.
Frequently used information is presented directly on the main TeraMail screen, including conversations, users, Groups, departments, canned messages, user availability, communication endpoints, and conversation history.
Fast Message Dispatch
TeraMail can be operated using keyboard function keys, mouse controls, or touchscreen controls. Users can quickly search for a recipient by name or short identification number, select an individual or authorized Group, choose a canned message or enter a new message, and send it. Canned messages allow frequently used communications to be selected quickly without repeatedly typing the same information. Authorized users can also create an ad-hoc recipient Group while composing a message when additional personnel need to receive the same communication.
Find and Forward Previous Communications
TeraMail provides tools for finding previous communications when personnel need to review what occurred.
Users can search messages by date range, identify messages containing attachments, and search for words contained within previous message content.
Messages can also be forwarded to other authorized recipients, with the option to forward the message with or without its original attachment.
See Hospital Communications as They Happen
TeraMail Hospital Communications Console — Designed for rapid message dispatch from PCs and touchscreens, with individual and Group recipients, canned messages, conversation history, endpoint identification, user availability, and message status. TeraMail displays communications chronologically so authorized users can review messages exchanged with the people with whom they are communicating. The conversation history automatically updates and provides message status information including the date and time a message was sent, delivered, and read. Users can see authorized Groups, identify available users, and determine whether a recipient is using TeraMail, TeraMessage Mobile, or a pager endpoint. This provides hospital communications personnel with an operational view of current and previous communications without requiring them to move between multiple screens simply to understand what happened.
Message Accountability and Centralized Logging
For time-sensitive hospital communications, sending the message is only the beginning. PageRouter maintains a centralized communication log containing information associated with message delivery and activity, including: Sender Recipient or Group Message text Attachments Date and time sent Date and time delivered Date and time read Delivery failures and retries TeraMail also provides the individual user with chronological conversation history and message status information. Together, these capabilities help authorized personnel determine what was sent, who received it, when it was delivered, and when it was read.
Connect the Hospital Systems You Already Have
Hospitals have made substantial investments in Nurse Call, clinical, alarm, mobile, and other operational systems.
PageRouter does not require the hospital to replace those systems.
Instead, PageRouter can provide the specialized communications and message-delivery layer that connects selected messages and notifications generated by existing hospital systems with the personnel who need to receive them.
Nurse Call to Smartphone
A Nurse Call system can generate an event or message and deliver it to PageRouter. PageRouter routes the message to the appropriate authorized users or Groups. Nurse Call → PageRouter → TeraMessage Mobile → Hospital Smartphone TeraMessage Mobile can reside on compatible smartphones already being used by hospital personnel, allowing the hospital to extend the communications capabilities of its existing mobile environment.
TeraMail to Smartphone
Hospital personnel can also originate messages directly from TeraMail.
TeraMail → PageRouter → TeraMessage Mobile → Hospital Smartphone
The recipient can receive the message and respond, creating two-way communication between workstation and mobile personnel.
Integrate Existing Onsite Paging
Smartphones are an important part of modern hospital communications. Existing onsite paging systems can remain an important part of the communications environment as well. Hospitals that already operate reliable onsite paging infrastructure do not need to remove it to deploy TeraMail and TeraMessage Mobile. PageRouter can integrate existing pagers with smartphone and workstation communications, allowing hospitals to use the appropriate endpoint for different personnel and operational requirements. Nurse Call → PageRouter → Onsite Pager TeraMail → PageRouter → Onsite Pager Where new or expanded onsite paging coverage is required, Canamex Communications can provide the paging infrastructure, including PageRouter integration, paging transmitters, POCSAG encoding, and system engineering. The objective is not to force the hospital to choose between smartphones and pagers. Use smartphones where smartphones make sense. Continue using pagers where paging provides the appropriate communication solution. PageRouter brings the communication environment together.
One Communications Platform — Multiple Hospital Sources and Endpoints
PageRouter provides the communications engine connecting people, hospital systems, and communication devices. Message Sources TeraMail Nurse Call systems Alarm and monitoring systems Other integrated hospital systems PageRouter Message routing Delivery management Communication logging User and Group management Hospital system integration Communication Endpoints TeraMessage Mobile TeraMail Existing onsite pagers Hospitals can begin with TeraMail and TeraMessage Mobile as a private instant-communication platform and expand the same PageRouter environment as additional communication requirements are identified.
More Than Another Hospital Messaging App
Consumer messaging applications are designed primarily to exchange messages. Hospital communications have additional operational requirements. TeraMail, TeraMessage Mobile, and PageRouter were developed around requirements encountered in hospital communications environments: rapid message dispatch, reliable delivery, persistent mobile connectivity, attention to unread messages, individual and Group communications, protected exchange of messages and files, message status, communication history, centralized logging, and integration with hospital-generated notifications. The result is not simply another way to put a message on a smartphone. It is a communication platform designed around the complete process of getting important information from its source to the appropriate hospital personnel and maintaining a record of what happened.
Start with the Smartphones Your Personnel Already Use
A hospital does not need to replace its existing clinical systems or introduce another device simply to improve communications. Start with PageRouter, TeraMail, and TeraMessage Mobile. Connect personnel working from computers and tablets with personnel carrying smartphones. Then integrate Nurse Call, alarms, existing onsite paging, and other hospital communication sources according to your operational requirements. Reliable delivery. Fast dispatch. Two-way communication. Message accountability. Hospital system integration.