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Mobile Veterinary Practice Uses Avaya Unified Communications to Ensure Speedy House Calls, Responsive Service to Help Clients' Pets
Avaya IP Office and Mobility Solutions Help Highland Heights Animal Hospital Keep Hospital Vans Connected to Customers and Colleagues
| Source: Avaya Inc.
BASKING RIDGE, NJ--(Marketwire - March 2, 2009) - Highland Heights Animal Hospital, located
in Northern Kentucky, selected a small-business Internet protocol (IP)
communications system from Avaya to keep its highly mobile doctors,
technicians and staff connected to customers and colleagues. The hospital
serves as a traveling facility with a surgical home-base that brings
top-quality veterinary care and pet grooming services directly to clients'
homes in Cincinnati, Ohio and northern Kentucky.
Using three vans fitted out with mobile examination rooms and pharmacy
capabilities, Highland Heights' doctors and technicians log thousands of
miles annually and a dozen appointments daily within a 30-mile radius
consisting of almost 11,000 pet owners. Visiting pet owners directly helps
many of them avoid the bother of bringing their pets to an office for a
checkup or grooming. When doctors and staff arrive at a client's home, the
pets are escorted into the vans where they receive basic veterinary care,
and if required, transport back to Highland Heights' medical and surgical
facility. The pet is delivered back to the client's home when the medical
procedure is complete.
This unique approach to pet care required a solution featuring advanced
communications capabilities that helped to ensure each hospital van had
consistent and reliable mobile communications. To do this, Highland Heights
Animal Hospital turned to a solution anchored by Avaya IP Office, the
leading IP communications system for small businesses.
"Our mobile teams of doctors and technicians, and staff and medical teams
at the surgical facility must keep in touch with each other constantly,"
said Shandon Stamper, co-owner of Highland Heights Animal Hospital. "It's
also vital to keep our clients informed about their pets' condition if they
need further medical care."
Highland Heights worked with G&C Interconnects, a Cincinnati-based voice,
data, and home technology provider, to come up with a solution powered by
Avaya IP
Office 500.
"The first thing we did was solve their phone system challenges. They used
to have three separate telephones at each workstation, so we merged the
three systems into one," said Kristian Guntzelman, chief innovation officer
of G&C Interconnects. "Now, a single phone's display tells them what
business unit to answer for, such as grooming or medical facility help, and
customers only need to dial one phone number to get any type of service."
This successful conversion led Highland to pursue their ambitious mobile
vans strategy.
"Highland Heights told us they wanted to get rid of the cell phones in
their mobile vans, which were getting costly, yet they still wanted to
maintain contact with those workers," Guntzelman recalls. "Working with
Avaya, we came up with a solution using mobile broadband and Avaya's VPN
Remote telephones. Now, each mobile unit has a telephone off the main
office's PBX. Mobile workers are just a 4-digit extension away, and can
respond to voice calls and group pages as if they were in the office."
In addition to Avaya IP Office 500, Highland Heights' installation
consisted of Avaya 5400 digital phones, Avaya 5600-series IP phones with
Avaya's VPN Remote software, a VPN gateway, and a high-speed Internet
circuit from the local cable company. The phones in the vans are connected
by a broadband Internet service provided by their cellular carrier.
With the Avaya VPN software, phones and gateway, Highland
Heights' remote workers in vans can get the same secure communications they
receive in the main office, because the VPN phones in the vans actually
become remote extensions of IP Office. Mobile workers can route incoming
office calls to their VPN phone, so they are seamlessly connected, and
doctors and staff in the vans can get all of the capabilities they have at
their main office, such as voice mail, messaging, and conferencing, without
the cost of adding VPN gateways in each van.
According to Shandon, Avaya IP Office has also helped Highland Heights save
more money on local calls, since they no longer have to manage cellular
minutes based on the usage of the vans.
Avaya IP communications keep doctors informed and customers happy
Highland Heights' doctors now have access to other useful capabilities of
Avaya IP Office. Voicemail is accessible via their e-mail systems, which
improves doctor communications with the headquarters staff. Additionally,
mobile doctors can now dial into a pre-programmed phone number to record
their experiences with every pet -- something that is especially important
for those pets which are transported for extra medical care. According to
co-owner of the practice, Ray Stamper, "Doctors who are mobile can send
their detailed voice remarks to the medical facility via e-mail. This
ensures complex information about clients' pets is accurately communicated,
and it's another way to make sure clients' pets are well cared for."
Highland Heights is also using IP Office to make its customer operations
run more efficiently. In addition to providing single number access for
multiple services, an automated attendant capability in Avaya IP Office
tells callers which numbers to press to reach a specific service or the
receptionist. If a customer calls the medical office and wants to speak
with a doctor in one of the mobile vans, the receptionist can transfer the
client's call to the mobile doctor. If the receptionist is busy, she can
check her phone display -- which now shows what employees are available --
and send calls to them, helping to ensure customer calls are handled
promptly.
"Avaya IP Office was a perfect choice for us. We can easily manage the
system ourselves, make clients happier, and save money by using our staff
resources wisely," Shandon said.
"When it comes to communications, even the smallest business wants the same
benefits that big business gets."
About Avaya
Avaya is a global leader in enterprise communications systems. The company
provides unified communications,
contact centers, and related services directly and through its channel
partners to leading businesses and organizations around the
world. Enterprises of all
sizes depend on Avaya for state-of-the-art communications that improve
efficiency, collaboration, customer service and competitiveness. For more
information please visit www.avaya.com.
About G&C Interconnects
Cincinnati-based G&C Interconnects has been in the technology industry
since 1994, providing quality computer & telephony services to its
customers. G&C has additional divisions which handle high-end multi-site
Home Technology installations and Video Recording services for its clients.
G&C provides its services to clients all over the country. For more
information, visit G&C at: http://www.RealWorldTime.com.