August 22, 2019

New encrypted pagers coming for VUMC

Over the last several weeks, Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) has been updating our systems for clinical communications (texting and paging). These changes have been necessary to ensure that we comply with updated guidelines from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), which specify that all pages and texts containing protected health information (PHI) must be encrypted.  

We began this transition by expanding the use of MH-CURE by Mobile Heartbeat to care team members across VUMC—a rollout that impacted both personally and VUMC-owned devices. The expansion of MH-CURE allows care team members to securely send and receive texts, as well as receive pages, containing PHI without violating CMS guidelines.

The next phase of this project is the transition to secure, encrypted pager technology. We have been working with our paging vendor, American Messaging Systems (AMS), to update our infrastructure and devices. As part of this process, colleagues who require an encrypted pager will “swap” their existing pager for a new one. These colleagues include:

  • Residents and fellows
  • Team members who see patients at off-site locations (e.g., Stallworth, the VA, etc.) or in locations with Wi-Fi and cellular data connectivity challenges
  • Team members with specific clinical workflow requirements that require a pager

Colleagues who currently forward pages to a mobile phone via SMS (Short Messaging Service, more commonly known as “text message”) have two options:

  1. The user can opt for a physical pager, and a new encrypted pager will be provided.
  2. The user can opt for receiving messages via MH-CURE, and pages will be directed to their personal mobile device running the MH-CURE application (instructions available here for installing MH-CURE).

Over the next several months, VUMC and AMS will receive shipments of new pagers that support encrypted paging. We will work with clinical and administrative leadership to best determine when and how pager users will turn in their existing pager and, if necessary, receive an encrypted one. These details will be communicated to pager users as they are finalized with each area/department. Please look for more information in email and MyVUMC.

Please note the following:

  • Paging workflows will not change.
  • Numbers for existing pagers will be transferred to the new encrypted device.
  • At the end of the pager exchange program, forwarding of pages to mobile devices via SMS will be discontinued and all remaining unencrypted pagers will be disabled.
  • All pages sent through AMS will also be delivered via MH-CURE. This change ensures that a page sent through eStar paging or Synergy, for example, will still be securely delivered.  Please note: this functionality is scheduled to be live in late August 2019.