Voxello Supports Communication for Critically Ill Patients

Voxello’s mission continues to be focused on providing patients, who face barriers to communication, with the means to summon help and effectively communicate with their caregivers. When hospitalized patients cannot communicate with their doctors and nurses, they are at a much higher risk of experiencing preventable adverse events that result in pain and even death. The inability to effectively communicate increases stress on both the patient and healthcare providers. 

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically increased the number of patients in hospital ICUs with many requiring ventilatory support. Thus, hospital staff found themselves treating many more patients who were unable to speak because they were intubated. A key to performing bedside care and procedures is effective patient-provider communication. That communication has been impacted by the necessary infection control protocols that limited who could be at the patient’s bedside. 

Additionally, the surges of Covid19 cases and the increased hospitalization rates have left many hospitals having to treat large numbers of patients including those with limited English proficiency. Communicating with such patients has always been a challenge. The COVID-19 infection control protocols have limited the use of live interpreters at the bedside and the use of virtual-interpreter services. When patients are able to talk, the interpreters are in a position to translate what they are saying. But when patients are unable to speak, the patient-to-provider channel cannot be helped by access to interpreters.

Voxello understands that achieving optimal patient-provider communication requires not just the development of assistive technology to address the barriers to communication, but also effective in-service training of hospital staff to establish effective bidirectional communication. For more information on how Voxello can work with you to support the communication needs of your patients and staff go to www.voxello.com/healthcare-professionals.

As we begin 2022, we are hopeful that the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic will begin to be abated. The barriers to communication faced by critically ill patients existed before the pandemic and will continue to need to be addressed even after the pandemic has passed.  Voxello offers hospitals a single integrated system to allow physically limited patients access to the nurse call system and a speech-generating device if they are unable to speak. Voxello’s noddle smart switch can give patients who can only produce a tiny voluntary gesture the ability to summon help and also control the noddle-chat communication tablet. The communication templates available on the noddle-chat tablet have been designed to meet the wide range of communication needs of adult and pediatric patients. The noddle-chat tablet can also be used to allow patients with limited English proficiency who are unable to speak to make their needs known to their caregivers.  The system is designed to be simple and easy for both patients and hospital staff. 

We are offering a special this month on the Voxello System that includes:

1. The noddle switch, 
2. The noddle-chat communication tablet, 
3. The noddle-arm that positions the noddle and noddle-tablet
4. A supply of noddle single-patient use sensors
5. Voxello virtual training

If you want to know more and would like a demonstration, please contact me. 

Richard Hurtig, Ph.D.

Chief Scientific Officer

O: 319-333-7302 ext. 501 | C: 319-594-5404

richardhurtig@voxello.com

2500 Crosspark Road, W-150, Coralville, IA 52241