How One Ontario, Canada company helps local and global hospitals work faster and better

Connexall’s sophisticated communications platform features intelligent alarm routing designed to improve workflows, safety and patient outcomes

In emergency departments, operating rooms and hospital wards across Canada, the United States and Europe, Health IT solutions created by an Ontario, Canada innovator work intelligently behind the scenes to streamline workflows, improve safety and, ultimately, enhance outcomes for thousands of patients each year.

The innovator: Toronto, Ontario-based Connexall. The solution: a sophisticated communications platform that integrates various operations and automatically conveys critical information within an organization.

Connecting patients with health care professionals

In the health care settings served by Connexall, these solutions connect people, systems and devices so that every stage of the patient journey—from triage to discharge—is executed with greater efficiency and higher levels of service. Connexall supports clinical workflow by providing the right person with the right information at the right time.

Connexall was founded by David Tavares in 2002 and has employees in Canada, the U.S. and Europe. Connexall developed many patented solutions for patient alarm notifications and workflow management. These solutions are now deployed widely in health systems, hospitals and extended care facilities across Canada, North America and Europe.

At the heart of Connexall’s solutions is intelligent clinical alarm routing, which triggers notifications and calls to action based on particular circumstances and events in a workflow. For example, when an attending physician logs a discharge order into a patient’s electronic medical records, Connexall’s platform automatically sends notifications to nursing and patient transport staff’s mobile devices.

Depending on the patient’s needs, the notification may also include requests for special equipment, such as a wheelchair to move the patient from the bedside to the front door. As the patient transport staff respond to the call, nursing staff can start getting the bed ready for a new patient.

The innovation of integrating technologies

In certain hospitals, Connexall’s platform connects with devices such as smart beds to ensure that clinicians are notified of potential fall risks, such as patients rolling precariously close to the edge of the bed or the bed rails being down. The platform also connects to virtual assistants, such as Amazon’s Alexa speakers, that allow the right staff member to be notified when a patient is requesting assistance or needs to go to the bathroom.

“Connexall solutions are based on in-depth research into hospitals and other care facilities’ needs,” says Erry. One Connexall solution, called Do Not Notify When Co-Located, responded to the challenge of unnecessary alarms clinicians get even when they’re in the same room as the patient in question.

“This was distracting and, in one children’s hospital, left the patients’ parents wondering why nurses were on their phones so much when caring for their child,” says Erry. “Connexall’s solution suppresses the alarms when it detects that the staff member is inside the patient’s room. This solution silenced over 40 per cent of unnecessary alarms within the first three months of deployment in that particular hospital and created a quieter environment that is more conducive to healing.”

Connexall’s solutions have yielded impressive results. At one Ontario hospital, porter tasks that used to take almost an hour were cut down to 15 minutes. At another Ontario hospital, the average time for bed turnover and patient moves was cut in half from two hours to one.

Helping with the pandemic

As COVID-19 pushed hospitals beyond their usual intake capacity and increased the need for greater protection for front-line workers and patients, Connexall’s teams stepped up to help hospitals rapidly integrate converted isolation units into their communications platforms. Nurse call systems and COVID-19 tracking tools—as well as alarms for transport, patient monitoring and ventilator systems—were added and configured quickly to support the work of caring for COVID-19 patients while keeping everyone in the hospitals safe.

“Supporting our global customers through rapid deployment, seamless integration, and 24/7 support remains our top priority during the pandemic,” says Erry.

Choosing Ontario for its talent and innovation ecosystem

“Being an Ontario company has been an important factor in Connexall’s success. Toronto, a hub for innovations and investments, is the company’s home base and more than 55 per cent of its employees work there,” says Erry. The city’s proximity to the U.S. has also been a huge advantage for Connexall as it continues to expand into new markets.

Connexall’s Ontario location also gives the company easy access to a large and highly-skilled talent pool. Seven out of 10 working-age adults in Ontario have completed post-secondary education, putting the province ahead of any other OECD country.

Research by CBRE Group Inc., a global commercial real estate services and investment firm, ranks Toronto ahead of large U.S. technology markets such as San Francisco, New York and Washington, D.C., when it comes to tech talent.

“Ontario has been a perfect starting point for Connexall,” says Erry. “Firstly, local talent keeps contributing to our innovation and leading-edge health care technologies. Secondly, Ontario provided us with a better chance for deployment in health care facilities across the whole of North America and for our expansion to global markets. Thirdly, we benefit from access to Ontario’s robust health ecosystem of technology, innovation partners, and academic institutions.”