< + > Could Gaps in Unified Communications Deployment Pose a Risk to Frontline Healthcare?

The following is a guest article by Nick Muir, General Manager for EMEA at Spectralink

Platforms Such as Microsoft Teams May Aid Organization-Wide Collaboration, Yet Many Frontline Healthcare Workers are at the Mercy of a Communication Infrastructure That Isn’t Suitable for Their Needs

Too often, when healthcare organizations calculate the payback of unified communications (UC) deployments, they aren’t thinking of the high volumes of critical frontline workers who are continuously moving between patients, departments, and critical care areas. This can prove to be a risky mistake.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many healthcare organizations migrated administrative staff to modern UC platforms, such as Microsoft Teams, to keep staff connected wherever they are. But those provisions weren’t typically deployed with frontline clinical staff in mind. 

Standard desktop or mobile clients aren’t generally suitable for clinical environments with their strict hygiene protocols, complex building structures, integration requirements, and patient safety regulations. Most frontline healthcare workers communicate largely by voice, meanwhile. If network connectivity drops, infrastructure is breached, or core functionality isn’t fit for purpose, their ability to provide continuous quality care is compromised.

The Risk of Disruption to Clinical Processes

In healthcare, communication devices serve as an aggregator for the entire clinical process, linking prescriptions, treatment protocols, surgeon schedules, patient monitoring, and nursing procedures on a patient-by-patient basis. 

Devices that aren’t purpose-built for healthcare environments may fail under the demands of clinical work, be stolen, or become damaged during cleaning with hospital-grade disinfectants. 

Communications coverage must remain reliable throughout complex building structures, including basements, reinforced areas, and locations with historically poor wireless connectivity. Integration with nurse call systems, patient monitoring platforms, and electronic health records is essential for clinical workflows. Location services are particularly acute in a healthcare context.

Resilience Matters

Recent roundtable discussions our organization has held with healthcare providers confirmed just how worried their frontline workers are about communication resilience, for example, in the event that primary networks fail or are breached. When organizations invest heavily in cloud-based UC platforms, it is often with an assumption that communication capabilities will remain available when needed. But when broadband outages occur, standard UC infrastructure can be compromised. This can pose a real patient safety risk if it affects clinical staff on the frontline.

DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications) technologies are a viable option here because they create dedicated communication channels that persist irrespective of Wi-Fi or LAN status, while also enabling peer-to-peer calling and full UC platform integration during normal operations. DECT systems are also inherently more difficult to compromise than Wi-Fi or cellular networks. This is because they operate on dedicated frequencies and use their own authentication protocols. In an era of increasing cyber threats to critical infrastructure, this architectural separation provides an additional layer of security.

Regulatory Expectations

The risks for healthcare organizations are amplified by evolving worker safety regulations and public and patient safety requirements, including those that specify how emergency alerts should be handled.

In the U.S., Kari’s Law mandates that notifications are routed simultaneously to internal security and emergency services, while RAY BAUM’s Act requires dispatchable location information, including specific room and floor data, not just building addresses. Organizations that fail to comply could be penalized. 

Robust safety measures, on the other hand, can help to drive down workplace violence incidents (a growing concern in healthcare) and accelerate crisis response, while making tangible the organization’s duty of care to staff and patients.

Technical Barriers to Frontline Continuity

Today, almost two-thirds (65%) of frontline workers use Microsoft Teams, according to research by Cavell on workforce mobility. Healthcare organizations are increasingly standardizing Teams as their primary collaboration platform. This creates both an opportunity to finally include clinical staff in UC and a challenge. That’s because extending Teams capabilities to mobile workers in specialist environments can present a range of practical issues.

The integration challenge isn’t trivial. Connecting DECT systems with platforms such as Teams requires sophisticated technical implementation and platform certification. Where executed properly, the extended rollout enables clinical staff to participate fully in the Teams environment, receiving messages, joining group chats, and accessing shared resources while using devices optimized for clinical working conditions. Where this is not the case, hygiene control could become problematic, battery life could falter during a long shift, and noise levels in busy departments might render standard audio unusable.

Recommended Remedies

Ideally, clinical UC deployment will include native integration and maintain a single identity and presence across all staff personas. This helps to ensure seamless communication irrespective of device or location, as well as consistent administration. Certainly, in 2026, the priority should be to ensure that clinical and frontline staff (the core of healthcare delivery) are no longer an afterthought in digital transformation. 

Practical recommendations to overcome current gaps in frontline continuity include:

• Understanding Clinical Workflows: Appreciating specific operational requirements will help clarify which technical capabilities matter
• Evaluating Infrastructure Honestly: Rather than force-fitting inadequate solutions, acknowledging where purpose-built, healthcare-specific alternatives are required
• Prioritizing Interoperability Over Uniformity: The goal shouldn’t be identical devices for every staff member, but rather that every staff member can communicate effectively within a unified system 
• Building for Resilience, Not Just Capability: Communication systems become most critical during disruptions — precisely when they’re most likely to fail if not properly architected; in healthcare, ensuring redundancy is fundamental risk management

About Nick Muir

Nick Muir is Spectralink’s General Manager for EMEA. He is a leader and innovator with more than 25 years of customer experience, consumer electronics, and telecoms, specializing in strategy, sales/business development, and scale-ups. Nick has held board, executive, C-level, VP, management team, and director roles across a diverse range of tech-enabled businesses. Nick currently also serves as a non-executive director at RIPtec and at Blackfinch Ventures, providing strategic guidance and oversight on its invested portfolio. Spectralink gives frontline workers the same tools and connectivity as desk-based workers – so they can move faster, work smarter, and serve customers better.