Adding a Contact

When you add a contact to your system you provide basic information to identify the entry, and contact information such as phone numbers and email addresses.

  1. Navigate to Contacts in the Manage section, and click Add Contact.
    The New Contact page displays.

    The New Contact page includes the following three sections:

    • General
    • Contact Information
    • Speech Recognition
  2. (Optional) Click the drop down arrowhead to expand a section and view the fields, then click the same arrowhead to collapse the section.
  3. In the General section, complete the fields listed in the table below. An asterisk * indicates that a value must be entered for this field.

    Field

    Maximum Length

    Description

    Facility

    N/A

    Select the facility associated with your contact from the dropdown list.

    • If your organization has multiple facilities connected to the same Vocera Platform, choose the facility where users need to access this contact. If the entire organization uses this entry, choose the Global facility.

    • If your organization does not have multiple facilities, accept the default Global setting.

    Is a person?

    N/A

    Select this checkbox if the new contact is a person, or clear the checkbox if the new contact is an organization.

    This checkbox is selected by default.

    First Name *

    50

    If the new contact is a person, specify the first name of the contact. This field appears only if the Is a person? checkbox is selected.

    The value you provide in all name fields must start with a letter or digit. It must contain only letters, digits, spaces, apostrophes ('), underscores (_), or dashes (-). No other characters are allowed. The speech recognition system uses the names you provide to recognize contacts.

    Last Name *

    50

    If the new contact is a person, specify the last name of the contact. This field appears only if the Is a person? checkbox is selected.

    Name *

    50

    If the new contact is an organization, specify the name of the organization. This field appears only if the Is a person? checkbox is cleared.

  4. In the Contact Information section, complete the fields listed in the table below. You must complete at least one field if you want to reach a contact using a voice command.

    Field

    Maximum Length

    Description

    Phone

    50

    Specify the phone number for the new contact.

    Pager

    50

    Provide a pager number for the person or place in the Pager field.

    If you enter a value for this field, any user can issue the Send a page voice command to send a numeric page to this Contacts entry; when the recipient returns the call, it is connected directly to the user's badge.

    Email Address

    60

    Enter an Email Address to allow users to send voice messages as an email attachment.

  5. The Speech Recognition section lets you provide variations of a contact's name or identifying phrases to assist in speech recognition. Complete the fields listed in the table below.

    Field

    Maximum Length

    Description

    Alternate Spoken Names

    50

    Specify an alternate spoke name, you can add up to 3 alternate spoken names for a contact.

    Use these guidelines to ensure the best result when you are defining alternate names for users:
    • Person, Group, and Location Names — If users refer to a person, group, or location in various ways, enter each variation in a different field.

      For example, enter Bob Jones and Rob Jones in addition to Robert Jones. Similarly, enter a nickname that the person or place is known by, such as Skip Jones.

    • Digits in Name Fields — The names you provide must start with a letter or digit. They must contain only letters, digits, spaces, apostrophes ('), underscores (_), or dashes (-). No other characters are allowed.Note: Even though these special characters are allowed, it is unlikely that an alternate spoken name would need underscores (_), or dashes (-).
    • Staff IDs — It is recommended that you do not create an alternate spoken name that contains numeric digits only. For example, a staff ID with numbers and no letters.
      567748
      Entering numeric staff IDs is permitted. However, using numeric values only might result in
      • Slower Genie response times
      • Problems with phone number recognition
    • Acronyms and Initials in Alternate Spoken Names— If people use an acronym or initials to refer to an entry in Contacts, provide them as a series of letters separated by spaces.

      For example, if users refer to Easton Medical Clinic as EMC, enter E M C. Similarly, enter A C Hoyle for A.C. Hoyle. For Armandeep Munindar Gill, also enter A M Gill rather than A.M. Gill.

    • Unusual Pronunciation— If a name has an unusual or confusing pronunciation, or silent letters, enter a name that is spelled as it is pronounced.

      For example, if the system does not recognize the name Jodie Dougherty, you could enter Jodie Dockerty.

    • Professional Titles in Alternate Spoken Names— If users refer to a person by his or her title, provide the full spelling of the title rather than an abbreviation.

      For example, enter Father Brown instead of Fr. Brown, or Professor Lindsay instead of Prof. Lindsay.

    Identifying Phrase

    50

    Specify an Identifying Phrase to help Vocera distinguish this user from another whose first and last names are spelled the same.

    For example, if there are two users named Mary Hill on the system, but they are in different departments, you could enter "Mary Hill in Pediatrics" as the identifying phrase for one user and "Mary Hill in Admissions" for the other.

  6. Select one of the following to close the dialog:
    • Save — to add the new contact to the system.
    • Cancel — to return to the Contacts page.