Physical pagers have been the staple in critical communications for more than 50 years, so much so, the concept of
paging
is synonymous with critical communications. This is most especially true in the healthcare industry, where a
2017 study published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine found that nearly 80% of hospitals still use physical pagers, even though the pager's time has clearly passed.
Today, the ability of legacy paging technology to securely and reliably deliver critical messages is functionally inadequate. The coverage of legacy paging networks is extremely limited, leaving many markets without any paging coverage and other markets with only spotty paging coverage by a single carrier.
Legacy pagers, for the most part, are not secure. These pagers have no authentication controls, they receive (some even transmit) and store their pages without any encryption. This
2018 article demonstates how a person with a little bit of skill, a computer and a $30 antenna can passively scan hospital's legacy paging system for PHI. For healthcare entities that require HIPAA compliance, legacy paging systems simply are not HIPAA compliant.
Acquiring and provisioning pagers is a slow, expensive and labor intensive process.
Lastly, a pager is yet another device that your users must carry.
In contrast, the URGIENT platform:
✓ Runs over cellular/WiFi networks
✓ Uses the smartphones your users already have
✓ Stores no data on users' phones
✓ Encrypts all data while at rest and in transit
✓ Allows the user to self register their own telephone
✓ Is HIPAA compliant