The
With the intelligence of the
In addition, the
Use this document in conjunction with the following
This section summarizes the new features in this release.
This release includes enhancements to several areas of the
This release provides the following enhancements to the
Add Custom Presence Status Messages
Add customized availability messages that you want to display on your Vocera Vina app,Access Archived Vina Conversations
If you have archived a
Add custom fields for Users, Devices, and Groups
System administrators can add a new attribute to Users, Groups, and Devices datasets to define custom fields for Users, Devices, and Groups in the system.
You can initiate broadcasts or urgent broadcasts from the
Calling Party Number field is now available for Shared Telephony
You can now include the Calling Party Number for Shared Telephony configuration. When you add a number to the Calling Party Number field available in the Add Shared Telephony Info dialog box, the Vocera facility's telephony caller ID is displayed so that call recipients can call back later at this number.Contacts in Vina
Any Contact entries added to the system will now be searchable in Vina. Vina users can call any Contacts in their Vina directory. The ability to start a chat (conversation) with a Contact is not supported.
Physicians can use the coverage request feature to request another physician or a care team member to cover their service responsibilities for a specific time so that patients are taken care of when the requesting physician is not available.
The requesting physician (requester) can initiate a request on their Vina app to cover their entire role, including all services that they provide to their patients. The scheduling part of the Coverage Request feature allows the physicians to create requests up to a week in advance, allowing enough time to plan the required coverage in their absence so that patients continue to get the required services even when a physician is away for some time.
System administrators must enable the required security policies and configure coverage specific set up to allow users to start initiating coverage requests from their Vina app. Coverage requests can only be initiated from the Vina app, but coverage request recipients can view, accept, or decline the request on their Vina app or smartbadge.
Enhancements to Bulk Actions
Following are some updates to the Bulk Actions:
Enhancement to Template Recipient Option
System administrators can select the Open Recipient option for the user to choose a single user or single group as the recipient of the template.Hide the display of a forwarded number
When a call is forwarded to an external phone number, administrators and users can choose to display the name of the called user instead of the external phone number on the device.System administrators can select Hide Forwarded Number in Settings > User Defaults > Notifications & Miscellaneous Settings > Call Setup section to hide the external phone number.
Similarly,
Messaging section renamed to Vina
in the Web Console User Interface
The Messaging section in
New Template button in Vina
Vocera Vina app users see a template button on their Vocera Vina app home screen. The
template button displays as an exclamation mark (!) with the chat and/or call buttons.
System administrator can enable or disable the display of the template button using the
Vocera Vina template button is enabled
security policy.
Vocera Vina users can use this button to select any available templates to initiate a templated alert.
When the coverage request is declined, the requester can then use the Forward option in the Presence window to forward the request to another recipient. Vina users can specify where they want the calls to be forwarded when they are unavailable, for example, to a nearby desk phone or another team member.
Vina users who often require to change floor or location assignments frequently can now easily add or remove themselves from an assignment group in Vina. This is especially useful where users don't have an updated staff assignment to follow.
System administrators can configure the appropriate group permissions and security policies to enable the users to add or remove themselves from the group.
Vina users can also tap on My Groups under System Settings to display all the groups that they belong to, users with appropriate group permissions can remove a group from this list.
Set a domain name or IP address for
If you have an Enterprise Mobile Management (EMM) system installed in your environment,
you can use it to specify the domain name or IP address for all
View Panic Caller's Location
The Emergency Broadcast Group members can view a panic caller's location information to quickly reach out to the panicking caller and provide the required assistance. System administrators can enable the Send Broadcasting User's Location to Emergency Broadcast Group option to broadcast the panic caller's location information to the group members.
The Vocera web calling feature allows you to initiate calls
from the
The web calling feature is useful for users who are managing a desk office
in a hospital set up and like to be able to make their Vina calls through the
For example, a nurse sitting at a nurse station can log in to the
This release provides the following server-side enhancements:
Dialing Vocera Extension
When dialing an extension via the on-screen dial-pad on Vocera Vina, Vocera Smartbadge, or via
the Dial extension
voice command, any defined Vocera Phone
fields on
Users or Groups will be searched first before the
call is routed to a connected PBX.
In earlier versions of the
This release includes the following new feature in
Placing Direct Calls from Vocera Devices
The new direct call feature as part of the Vocera care team connect solution enables patients and their care team to communicate with each other in bed locations lacking nurse call. Use of this feature can reduce the need to don and doff Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and improve the patient experience.
When the direct call feature is enabled for a
The Direct Call feature is disabled by default. System administrators can enable a user profile
in the
For information on Vocera device usage guidelines for the Direct Call feature, refer to the Vocera V-Series Smartbadge User Guide and Vocera B-Series Badge User Guide available on Vocera Documentation Portal.
This release includes enhancements to several areas of the
This release provides the following enhancements to the
Patient context is now available in
When you are creating a conversation in the
Alerts are now supported in the
The
Here is some of the functionality that alerts provide:
View alerts using both menu and desktop notifications.
Alerts are indicated using the menu and desktop notifications, and this ensures that you
are made aware that you have received an alert even if you are not actively using the
View alerts based on priority.
Alerts are displayed uniquely based on normal, high, or urgent priority. Each alert is color-coded based to indicate the type of alert priority.
On your screen, alerts and conversations are displayed in the following order:
Receive automatic invitations to join alerts.
When you receive an alert, you can choose to accept the alert and join a conversation with other recipients who received or accepted the alert invitation. You can also choose to decline the alert, or you can view the details of the alert before deciding to accept or decline it.
Create common alerts using a template.
If your facility has standard alert types that it generates regularly, you can define templates that enable you to generate these alerts quickly. Templates can be configured to specify the patient or location that is related to the alert.
Patient data display is now restricted.
You can now configure your system to prevent unauthorized users from viewing sensitive patient data. Users that belong to specified groups cannot view patient data, but can only view patient locations. This ensures that patient information is not displayed.
Hiding user's home departments.
System administrator can now configure the system to hide the user's home department. When a
user starts a new chat or call, or manages favorites, the user's home department is not
displayed at the top of the list in the
Groups can now display subgroups.
When you click a group name to display its members in the
Upload profile photo to your My Profile page.
You can now add or change your profile photo on your My Profile page. You cannot edit your profile photo if it is uploaded to the system through your organization's active directory integration.
Notes field for Groups and Users.
System administrator can now enter notes with information on the Group membership and permissions. This may be useful when a new person is assigned the system administrator role. Similarly, they can also add notes to for a specific user in the system.
Ability to clone templates.
You can now create templates with matching data using the clone template feature. You no longer need to spend your valuable time to manually add the same data multiple time to create new templates.
Tracking feature usage analytics.
Upload log files to the server.
When you are logged into the
In Vocera Vina, Group members with the right set of permissions can add or remove themselves from a group.
Custom Preset Options for Presence Status.
You can create custom preset options and select one of these options to display as your presence status.
A custom preset option is a presence status setting that allows a user to specify the presence state (available or unavailable) with some customized information. System administrators can create custom preset options for users in a Facility. Users can scroll through the available preset options and click or tap to choose the option that they want.
This release provides the following features:
Missed calls are not shown when All or Offline condition is selected to forward a call.
When the call gets forwarded to a destination through Call Forwarding > Forward When > All or Offline options, users do not see a missed call entry in the call log.By default, the Favor Frequently Called option is disabled for users and departments.
On the Settings > System Configuration > Preferences page of the Vocera Platform Web Console, Favor Frequently Called is set to None by default. You can enable it for users or departments.This release includes enhancements to several areas of the
This release provides parity with voice experience features implemented through
Announcing phone numbers for incoming calls.
When Announce Caller's Name After Tone is enabled in the
Genie Settings section of User Defaults in the
Announcing group name when a message is sent to a group.
When a message is sent to a group, the Genie announces the group name and the sender of the message. For example, the Genie may say, "You have a message for Med Surge Nurse from Charles Parker".
Ability to initiate or schedule a Code Lavender® event and send reminders for it.
A Code Lavender event helps clinical staff members to continue after being involved with a difficult case, diagnosis, or loss. Hospital staff often feel fatigue, despair, and negative emotions after an unwelcome outcome, due to their growing attachment with a patient. A Code Lavender event helps hospital employees regain the mental and emotional strength to cope with these challenging situations.
New voice commands to support this feature include "Schedule Code Lavender for <group name>>", "Start Code Lavender for <group name>>", "Delete Code Lavender Reminder for <group name>>", and "Delete All Code Lavender Reminders".
Automatically add doctor prefix to alternate spoken names.
The Doctor Prefix field in the Speech Recognition section of Manage > Users obviates the need to create an alternate spoken name for a user who has the title of "Doctor".
A facility-level setting to control the user of Easter Eggs.
Administrators can enable or disable the ability to use Easter Eggs commands for each facility.
Intelligent backoff strategies for Call, Broadcast, Add me to group, and Record Message commands.
Intelligent command backoff offers additional help to users when the Genie fails to recognize the names of recipients of common voice commands.
Commands to lead you through mindfulness sessions of varying lengths.
Mindfulness is a type of meditation that increases your awareness and improves your attention; it can reduce stress, sharpen concentration skills, and contribute toward your overall mental and physical health.
Use the Play Mindfulness command to take a mindfulness break with a guided meditation of 30 seconds, one minute, or five minutes. This feature is enabled by default.
Automatic prompting for users to record names that are frequently spelled.
The Genie interactively offers to learn the name of users if you spell it frequently when using the Call command. The Genie plays a prompt offering to learn the name that you spelled when you next log in.
Prompt to Play Unread Messages at Logout.
When a user logs out, the Genie asks if you want to play unread messages before the logout occurs. This reminder is useful because messages are often not played during a busy day, and then forgotten.
The ability to schedule reminders for other users and groups, and the ability to schedule reminders for yourself.
Reminders may be either recurring and non-recurring and can be scheduled through a
device or the
Updated prompts when transferring a login from a device to the mobile app.
When a logged-in user switches from a device to the app, the prompt now indicates that the user is being transferred to another device rather than being logged out.
Optional voice PIN authentication to play messages.
Badge users can now define a Voice PIN (Personal Identification Number) that must be spoken before playing messages. The PIN requirement is set by the administrator for individual users or groups.
This release provides the following enhancements to the
First release of the
Tiered administration permissions, enabling system administrators to delegate specific responsibilities to other users.
Using tiered administrators distributes the administrative maintenance, allowing system administrators to perform more complex tasks while tiered administrators handle the more routine maintence.
Ability to disable a user account through the
Disabling an account is useful in situations when a user is temporarily not available. When the account is disabled, the user's name and alternate spoken names are removed from the system grammar, improving speech recognition; in addition, disabled users do not decrement your overall user count for licensing purposes.
The Device Monitor now provides status information for all logged-in devices.
The Device Monitor the name of the logged-in user, the IP address of the device, and
for users running the
Message templates for the
Templates allow you to send emergency messages or other messages quickly, as values for many of the fields in the message have already been supplied.
Browser-based mini-applications available to end users who have the appropriate permissions:
My Profile
The My Profile application allows users to view and customize profile information, settings, and preferences related to Vocera devices and mobile applications.
My Workflow
By default, the My Workflow application provides access to a set of workflows for four defined user roles: End User, Charge Nurse/Department Secretary, Super User, and Administrator. These default roles allow users to efficiently perform their responsibilities from a menu displayed in a web browser. System administrators can rename these roles, modify their workflows, and add additional roles/workflows.
This release provides the following server-side enhancements:
Server-side support for
The
Support for newly introduced features in the
See the
Support for
The
Integration with the
Version 6.0.0 is the initial release of the
This release includes the following features:
Voice, Messaging, and Integrations provided by a single
New
Support for Vocera devices and mobile
Backwards compatibility with
The following list contains fixes and improvements made to the
The following list includes the defects fixed in this version of the
XMPP group maintenance is performed as a seperate task to increase throughput on XMPP data subscriptions. (PFM-14523)
As a result of this fix, identity creation is no longer blocked.
Null Pointer Exceptions (NPE) seen in GroupMaintainer when processing a GroupMember event associated with a group not in xmpp_cache (PFM-14528)
Added guard to protect against dereferencing null group reference returned from an xmpp_cache search.
In some situations, a
A fix was added to prevent any deadlocks causing a
The following list includes the defects fixed in this version of the
In certain scenarios, the Artemis Message Bus can get into a split-brain situation, reducing system stability and negatively impacting end users. (PFM-14364)
Voice Data Sync service failed to register properly with the Voice Service after
failover, resulting in the Smartbadges receiving the login cancelled
messages
(SIV-6292)
A new logic is added to set the server state as notConnected
whenever the
console stream is disconnected from the Voice Service.
Occasionally, bundles may take a long time to deploy after creating a cluster, and sometimes they fail to deploy. (PFM-14076)
When setting up a cluster in a Layer 3 environment, the priority for the nodes are not updated appropriately, causing the backup node to have the same priority definition as the active node. (PFM-14232)
Roster changes are now correctly detected when a user is already being monitored from
Data update response handling can hang forever in some circumstances, causing the process to run in a thread pool, eventually resulting in a thread leak over time. (PFM-14022)
Threads are now processed properly to avoid any potential thread leak issues.
The following list includes the defects fixed in this version of the
When a Vina user (off the wifi network) is assigned to a temporary group, the user is not removed from the temporary group on logout. (SIV-5314)
Vina users are now removed from temporary groups when they log out - even if they are off the wifi network so that their assignments are correctly updated.
Inbox prioritization from within the platform does not correctly handle the priority and read/unread messages. Server inbox cleanup may remove some higher priority conversations even though the clients are correctly sorting these messages. (PFM-13805)
The read receipts of the last messages are now appropriately set, this is no longer an issue.
The ASN field now syncs to the Voice Service, and the grammar file is updated correctly.
Web Console can display user IDs when user names are missing in the roster. (WEB-7452)
If user names are missing in the roster, Unknown
is displayed instead of
displaying user IDs.
When a Vocera device user in DND mode goes off-network, and comes back on network, the
device preserves the DND state. The Who Called
messages are not played.
(SIV-5681)
The Voice Service erroneously printing DND as false is now fixed and the Who
Called
message will play after the device user comes off the DND mode.
The Vocera SIP Telephony Gateway (VSTG) is sending the DTMF to the PBX without waiting for the appropriate acknowledgment causing an error. The error causes the VSTG to restart and disconnect any in-progress calls. (SIV-5577)
Unit membership
monitoring is now correctly updated, and the
The following defect is fixed in this version of the
Vocera Vina clients may lose connectivity to voice services due to a service outage on the platform server. (SIV-5803)
The rare deadlock occurrence in the signaling gateway causing Vina clients to lose connectivity, is now fixed.
The following list includes the defects fixed in this version of the
The Mass Notification Template generated alert notification delivery to all recipients is delayed if the number of deliveries exceeds the number of available speech ports. (PFM-13551)
This issue is now fixed.
Searching with a preferred Unit ID in the
This issue is fixed.
Genie session is being used to play the party left
chime even after the Group
broadcast ends. (SIV-5448)
This issue is fixed.
Under heavy speech recognition traffic conditions, the system may experience a
temporary delay in releasing a speech port at the end of a user’s session. This
situation can cause users to hear, I’m busy at the moment, please wait
from the
Genie while the system recovers. (SIV-5487)
This scenario is now optimized to handle the temporary delay at the end of a user’s session without affecting other user sessions on the server.
In multi-facility environments, requests to monitor a unit fail when a transformation is applied to the XMPP adapter. (PFM-13747)
The XMPP adapter service is now updated to process the request to monitor the units based on the transformations applied.
In some situations, if there are no alternate spoken name entries, using Vocera voice commands to make calls or other calling features results in unintended calls to users. (SIV-5434)
This issue is now fixed.
The following issues are fixed in the
Platform Issues
Import results should match row number in spreadsheet. Instead, an error row doesn't take into account the header row in the spreadsheet. (PFM-12807)
Import results now match row number in spreadsheet.
When a sender who is not part of a group sends a message to that group, the sender may see a notification that they have a message, but the sender is unable to find the message. (PFM-12804)
This issue is resolved.
Vocera Server does not transition to Standby on initial clustering. (SIV-2004)
This issue if fixed in the current version of the product.
Reminders are off by an hour after DST starts/ends. (SIV-3582)
This issue if fixed in the current version of the product.
iOS: Incoming Call is auto accepting after getting the call on top of Genie Screen. (SIV-4089)
iOS: Incoming Call is no longer auto accepted after getting the call on top of Genie Screen.
Responses that a user enters from a B3000N badge are not displayed in the
This issue is fixed in the current version of the product.
In some adapters, such as the Incoming VMI adapter, attempting to restart the adapter
service while it is in disable state results in the adapter service being stuck in the
stopping
state, and the adapter can no longer be enabled again. (PFM-12278)
In some situation users may not receive alerts when a shared device is not properly disassociated with previous users. (PFM-13420)
When a user switches devices, previously deleted conversations may reappear. (PFM-13402)
Web Console Issues
An error banner can appear on successful import.(WEB-6727)
The error banner is no longer displayed after a successful import.
Creating a user in the
The username field length is fixed to 50 characters.
The following issues are fixed in the
Platform Issues
In some cases, timezone changes would not take effect. Updating the Network Settings of the
server through the
Fixed the regex to detect timezone properly.
The
This scenario is now properly handled.
During message enunciation on a Vocera badge, a high alert would incorrectly play the “urgent message” prompt. (SIV-2274)
The “urgent message” prompt is no longer played for high priority messages.
Voice service no longer fails to start with a license error “Number of devices in database exceeds number of licenses” when using a standard license. (SIV-2280)
Device management is now provided by default for standard voice licenses so the device management license check has been removed.
During periods of heavy I/O, replication may stop for a short time and the cluster may display a Failed status, although the database status is in the Ok state. When the replication occurs, alert/alarm delivery can be delayed. (PFM-11100)
Resolved by upgrade to postgresql version 9.6.11.
Web Console Issues
When editing a user, an Administrator cannot select a contact where the user's calls will be forwarded to. (WEB-2596)
Resolved by removing filtering for actors which populated entity selection modal for user call forwarding (now accepts users, groups, and contacts).
Security policies may not be editable via a Remote Support connection. (WEB-2971)
Resolved in the Apache implementations.
When the client proxy is in a bad state, the UI may infinitely redirect if the user previously had a valid login token. (WEB-2271)
Resolved by displaying an error page if core is not running or client proxy is stopped.
The following issues are fixed in the
The cluster port is now statically configured, and firewall is opened for the port and for cluster heartbeat messages.
This section contains a list of known product issues and limitations in the
Platform Issues
The user's XMPP identity existed in the main database but the XMPP database caches may not have been synchronized with the user identity, causing a failed login attempt. (PFM-14938 CASE-1950)
Some legacy Vocera devices may receive coverage cancellation request without receiving any coverage request (PFM-13880).
play text messagesand
delete text messagesvoice commands are not supported on
When the PIN authentication security policy is disabled, creating new users with PIN will
result in the creation of partial user profiles. Users attempting to login through Vina Web or
Staff Assignment Console may get the userVoiceProfile is undefined
error message.
(WEB-8494)
After a requester resumes coverage, an incorrect message, Conversation has expired,
is displayed in the coverage request conversation. (WEB-8182)
When coverage request is accepted and coverage begins, the following message appears twice in the coverage conversation, "<Covered user's name> is being covered by <Covering user's name> <date> <time>." (WEB-8180)
Coverage request system message about covering being resume appears three times in the coverage conversation. (WEB-8181)
When adding a non-EAP-TLS (custom certificates) authentication for B3000n device after configuring EAP-TLS with custom certificate in the Web Console > Settings >BPE, if you do not enter the required ClientKeyPassword and Username field information you may get multiple prompts to enter username and client key passwords. (WEB-7947)
Workaround: Follow these steps to reconfigure with another Authentication Type without being prompted for the username and client key password after saving:
Broadcast and instant conference sessions generate an unexpected text notification on the Vocera B3000N devices. (PFM- TBD)
During a panic call with the Access Point (AP) Location sharing enabled, the caller's Home facility setting takes precedence over the current facility setting, and the AP location information is not displayed in the panic call. (SIV-5704)
Device information records are created without associated facility information. (SIV-5471)
This happens when a new device is added via Web Console > Device Inventory, and a new device record is created without a facility associated with the current access point.
Vocera Smartbadge is not enunciating urgent voice reminders for a Vocera Smartbadge user on a call. (SIV-5910)
A rare race condition can cause Vocera SIP Telephony Gateway (VSTG) service to crash and restart under heavy call conditions when SIP Provisional Response support is enabled on the VSTG but not on the Private Branch Exchange (PBX). (SIV-6011)
Workaround: Enable SIP Provisional Response (SIP Rel1xx) support on the PBX or contact Vocera Technical Support to disable this option on the VSTG.
After setting custom presence, if a logged-in user refreshes the application, the user’s
status is displayed as Unavailable.
(WEB-8540 )
The Remove Users on Logout option in Group > General > Preferences works correctly only when the user is voice-connected to the Wifi network before the logout occurs. (SIV-6101)
When setting up a cluster in a Layer 3 environment, the priority for the nodes are not updated appropriately, causing the backup node to have the same priority definition as the active node. (PFM-14232)
Deleting a User, Group, Unit/Department, Room, Bed, or Facility with many linked entities can cause server instability while the delete is taking place. In some cases, deleting entities can take hours, and new administration tasks cannot be completed during the delete process. (WEB-7541)
Workaround: We recommend only deleting newly created entities, and if deletes must take place, perform the delete function outside of any additional administration tasks. In addition, rather than deleting users, inactivating them is recommended.
Errors are encountered while trying to save a Group in the
Services and adapters can intermittently fail to deploy on failover; as a result of
this, users are unable to login to the
WORKAROUND: Restart the service or adapter manually.