Background: Traditionally, a patient presses the nurse call button and alerts the central nursing station. This system cannot reach the primary care nurse directly. The aim of this study was to apply a new smartphone system through the cloud system and information technology that linked a smartphone and a mobile nursing station for nursing care service.
Materials and methods: A smartphone and mobile nursing station were integrated into a smartphone nurse call system through the cloud and information technology for better nursing care.
Results: Waiting time for a patient to contact the most responsible nurse was reduced from 3.8 min to 6 s. The average time for pharmacists to locate the nurse for medication problem was reduced from 4.2 min to 1.8 min by the new system.
Conclusions: After implementation of the smartphone nurse call system, patients received a more rapid response. This improved patients' satisfaction and reduced the number of complaints about longer waiting time due to the shortage of nurses.
Keywords: nursing care; patient satisfaction; smartphone nurse call system; team communication.