OFF THE HOOK

A look inside CHC's Central Communications office

Inside Cascade Healthcare Community's Central Communication's office, days and nights are filled with nonstop action. A team of technicians works together to answer hundreds of thousands of calls from community members, physicians, caregivers, patients and their friends and family.

"You never know what's going to come across there," said Sandy Zitek, a Central Communications technician, pointing to her computer screen which flashes endlessly as new calls come through. "When it's red across the top, it's a code ... Someone's life could be in danger."

When a code is called at St. Charles Bend or St. Charles Redmond, Central Communications technicians make the announcement over the intercom and handle the communications aspect of the response. If necessary, the technicians have access to lock down portions of both hospitals by activating electronic doors.

On average, Central Communications handles 50 codes each month. But codes make up only a fraction of the workload. Since August of last year, when Bob Bailey took over as supervisor of the department and began keeping track, the group has answered nearly 800,000 phone calls from outside and inside the hospitals. He estimates they'll easily hit more than a million by the end of this summer.

 

"Most people don't understand the volume of calls coming in," Bailey said. "We have a great team of people that truly care about doing their work right. The people on the other end need help."

In addition to the calls from caregivers looking to reach other caregivers, physicians hoping to contact nursing staff or relatives trying to connect with patients, Central Communications technicians also handle calls from patients seeking nursing assistance. When a patient at St. Charles Bend calls for a nurse, they are first answered by a Central Communication's technician. That technician then lets the nurse know if the patient is hungry, in pain or having a medical problem, so the nurse can quickly bring the appropriate supplies to the patient's room.

Since August, Bailey said, his staff has answered more than 220,000 nurse calls and he expects to top the 300,000 mark in the next few months. To keep up with the workload, the five workstations in the Central Communications office are often filled with technicians answering the phone, transferring calls and discussing problems with each other shifts that fly by. "When I go home," Zitek said, "I don't answer phones."