Case Study: University of Minnesota Residential Life Department achieves improved staff communication, safety, and mobility with Stryker

Nation’s Busiest Veterinary Teaching Hospital Improves Staff Communication, Safety, and Mobility

The University of Minnesota Veterinary Medical Center, one of the nation’s busiest veterinary teaching hospitals (treating over 40,000 companion and 4,000 large-animal cases annually), faced unreliable cellular coverage and outdated one-way pagers/push-to-talk phones caused by its steel-and-concrete infrastructure. Those communication gaps made care coordination difficult, delayed triage, and created safety risks for mobile staff working with large animals.

The hospital implemented the Vocera Communication Platform—wearable, voice-activated Vocera Badges and Vocera Secure Texting over Wi‑Fi—providing hands-free calling by name/group, an active staff directory, and secure photo/text messaging. Within six months badge deployment doubled, communication confusion and delays decreased, staff safety and satisfaction improved, physicians stayed connected on and off campus, and the organization plans further enterprise-wide expansion.

University of Minnesota Residential Life Department

Pat Berzins

Director of Operations