Some medical facilities are relying on two-way radios to help improve communication among staff during the COVID-19 crisis.

When dealing with someone’s life, or their health, communication is the most important thing. Effective communication can help nurses, healthcare provides, and auxiliary staff improve their work flow.

Crocket County Care Center’s Interim Director of Nurses, Vicki Childress, said that walkie talkies help do just that at her facility in Ozona, Texas.

Childress said she just ordered two-way radios for her staff in February, and has already seen an improvement in her facilities’ efficiency.

“For years we’ve wasted time running around trying to locate everyone,” she said. “It’s awesome, we don’t have to run up and down the hallways to find someone.”

Although there are many other types of communication systems out there, sometimes costing tens of thousands of dollars, Childress said walkie talkies are a much less expensive option and they work like a charm.

“Our patient care has just improved 100 fold,” She said, and she has found even more use for them with the Coronavirus pandemic.

Childress and her staff can now communicate much more effectively with each other and reduce unnecessary contact with patients, or at least reduce contact with patients to as few staff and nurses as possible.

Crocket County Care Center is not the only facility using these types of devices, and they have become even more important during the  global pandemic.

Robert Berger, Director of Facilities Support Services at Maniilaq Health Center in Kotzebue, Alaska, said that he and his staff are using two-way radios much more now to help keep patients safe and help prevent the spread of the Coronavirus.

Berger said many hospitals are triaging patients outside of the hospital, but that isn’t really possible with how cold it is in Alaska. So, instead, the front entrance becomes the initial triage station and the use of two-way radios helps him and hospital staff direct patients to exactly where they need to go.

It also allows reduced human-to-human contact when possible. He said pharmacists can send someone to drop off prescriptions so patients don’t have to go get them, and allows staff to assess if the patient needs to go deeper into the hospital for an appointment.

“It’s needed communication back and forth to all the key players in the hospital to direct that patient where they need to go,” Berger said.