Pagers, commonly known as bleeps, have supported hospital communication for decades. However, they provide little context, work in one direction and offer limited visibility over whether a message has reached the right person or resulted in a response.
Replacing pagers can feel like a significant undertaking, particularly when they are embedded within clinical and operational pathways. However, modern pager replacement creates an opportunity to improve how people, information and priorities move across an organisation.
Here are five common myths that can prevent healthcare organisations from making the change.
Pagers are often considered reliable because they are familiar and simple. However, traditional pager systems offer limited visibility over what happens after a message is sent.
The sender may have no way of knowing whether the bleep was delivered, whether the recipient is available or whether action has been taken. The recipient then needs to find a telephone, call back and gather the context required to respond.
Secure digital communication gives staff greater visibility over delivery, acknowledgement and response. Role-based communication can also direct messages to the person currently responsible, rather than relying on a specific individual carrying a pager.
No communication route is completely without risk, including pager infrastructure.
Digital systems can use multiple delivery routes and provide visibility when connectivity is interrupted. This allows organisations to identify and respond to problems rather than assuming a message has reached its destination.
Modern platforms can also run alongside existing telephony or pager systems during rollout, giving teams time to test pathways and build confidence before older systems are withdrawn.
The complexity of implementation depends on the size of the organisation, the number of pager pathways and the amount of workflow redesign required.
A successful programme should begin by understanding how bleeps are currently used, where delays occur and which pathways should be prioritised.
Organisations do not need to redesign every workflow before replacing the first pager. They can begin with selected teams, sites or use cases and expand over time.
Once digital communication is established, it can also support wider improvements such as referrals, pathology alerts, deteriorating patient escalation and emergency department coordination.
Most healthcare staff already use digital messaging in their personal lives, so the basic interaction is familiar.
Training is still important, particularly where roles, escalation routes or workflows are changing, but the system itself should be simple and intuitive.
Role-based communication can make it easier to find the right person or team without relying on personal contact details or local knowledge. Clear rollout planning, local champions and accessible support can also reduce the burden on staff during implementation.
Pager replacement does not need to happen through a single, irreversible switch.
Digital communication and existing systems can run alongside one another during implementation. This gives organisations time to test workflows, gather feedback and confirm that pathways are operating safely.
The aim is to build confidence before individual pager pathways are withdrawn, with clear criteria for when each part of the transition is complete.
Replacing pagers is about more than introducing a digital alternative. It can help healthcare organisations improve coordination, create clearer accountability and give staff better visibility across teams, services and sites.
Alertive connects people, information and priorities so healthcare teams can work as one. By bringing together real-time communication, coordinated workflows and operational insight, it helps organisations reduce coordination delays and respond more effectively to critical situations.
Pagers may be familiar, but familiarity should not prevent progress. With the right planning and implementation support, healthcare teams can move towards communication that is secure, responsive and designed around the way modern care is delivered.
Pagers, commonly referred to as bleeps, are a one-way communication method that first came into widespread use back in the 1980s. Despite encouragement from the former government back in 2019 to ditch the ‘archaic technology’ by 2021, bleeps are still in regular use across the majority of NHS Trusts.
But what’s stopping Trusts from making the switch to one of the digital communication systems available on the market? It’s time to debunk some myths about switching away from pagers so we can finally bin the bleeps for good.
Many believe that pager coverage is nearly perfect, simply because they have no way of telling that it isn’t! Traditional pager systems don’t track message delivery, meaning you can’t tell when a message has been delivered. In the case of non-urgent bleeps, it’s also common for a bleep request to be ignored when the required clinician is too busy to engage. It would therefore be easy to assume someone is busy, when in reality the message may never have been delivered at all.
Digital alternatives track message delivery and responses, giving all those involved full visibility as to whether messages have been received or not, and allowing for an auditing process to identify areas where there may be communication issues.
Of course WiFi and mobile data coverage is never going to be perfect, but it doesn’t have to be! While bleeps deliver messages in serial through a single route, modern solutions on the market have 2-3 delivery channels (WiFi, mobile data and SMS, if the system has a failsafe feature) to reduce missed alerts, which has the potential to expand in the future as this technology develops.
Still concerned about message delivery? Connectivity issues can be improved with the right technological input and don’t have to be a barrier to digital progress. Investing money into improving Trust WiFi instead of replacement pagers has the potential for a much higher ROI, positively impacting all connected systems instead of a single communication channel.
Everyone knows that change can take time and the sooner you get started the better, but some pager replacement systems on the market have been implemented successfully in hospitals in as little as 3 months.
The key to a smooth and quick implementation is planning, so as long as the project is managed effectively there’s absolutely no reason why it should take an eternity. Your service provider should guide you through this process and give support to ensure that change happens as quickly as you need it to.
Very little extra training is required for a pager replacement system that runs on smartphone devices, because most of your staff already use one every day!
When the goal is to make working life at your Trust more simple, it’s important to choose a solution that’s easy to use and offers an intuitive user interface to reduce future training requirements. Choose a provider that’s willing to give or help you give training to staff where necessary to reduce the impact on your team when extra user support is needed.
Trying out a modern solution doesn’t have to be permanent, with some systems able to run in parallel with your existing bleeps during the initial phase to give you and your clinicians peace of mind, allow time for testing system effectiveness and mitigate potential risks.
Fear that a change like this is irreversible can cause people to be unduly nervous about making the switch, when that simply isn’t the case! Yes, it’s time to bin the bleeps, but there’s nothing wrong with waiting until you’re sure that they’ll be effective to physically put them in the bin.
