What Are the Benefits of SIP Trunking for Hospitals?

Hospital administrators, C-suite executives, and their IT teams are under considerable pressure to balance day-to-day imperatives with long-term strategic initiatives. Most decision-makers tasked with meeting their facility’s diverse, rapidly evolving communication needs are painfully aware of the potentially detrimental issues that can arise from the communication gaps created by their disparate mix of analog and digital technologies. 

Those who recognize the need for cost-effective modernization are turning to SIP trunking providers to solve their most pressing concerns. With SIP trunking, account administrators can choose the best combination of communication services to support their facility’s unique needs. 

All staff members authorized to access those solutions have everything needed for efficient, effective communication consolidated into a single user-friendly interface. Plus, hospitals gain multiple benefits not available with legacy phone services through SIP trunking, including the latest advances in AI-enhanced, HIPPA-compliant security features.

Technology Overview: How SIP Trunking Supports Modern Business Communication  

SIP stands for session initiation protocol, and it’s the modern solution to legacy phone systems. It was developed to initiate, maintain, and terminate IP-based communication in real time. Today, SIP is widely known for its ability to convert analog voice signals to digital packets. With those digital conversions, a single SIP session can securely transmit any combination of voice, video, or data over the internet.   

SIP trunking gives businesses access to an impressive number of modern communication essentials, including cost-effective voice over internet (VoIP) phone services. Organizations switching to SIP-supported solutions gain access to enterprise features not available with legacy phone service, and their businesses benefit from cutting-edge technology that ensures optimal call quality and maximum flexibility on a communication network that requires no physical infrastructure. Hospital administrators nationwide are taking notice—with good reason.

Taking a Closer Look: Why Hospitals Nationwide Are Investing in SIP Trunking Services

Hospital communication needs are complex. Like many other businesses, many are still relying on phone systems designed to transmit incoming and outbound calls through physical cables and aging copper wires. That physical infrastructure connects their private branch exchange (PBX) with the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Each circuit supports 23 calls and one data channel simultaneously. When a hospital needs more connections to accommodate the needs of the communities they serve, they’re forced to absorb the cost of having a technician install additional circuits.

In today’s rapidly evolving communication landscape, maintaining legacy service is just one expense. In addition to paying fixed rates based on the number of phone lines assigned to their facility, most hospitals also employ a team of IT professionals to monitor, troubleshoot, and repair their complex communication infrastructures.

With modern medicine’s rapid evolution into the digital age over the past few years, hospital admins find the incompatibilities between their analog and digital technologies create unsustainable barriers impacting efficiency and productivity. Of the many benefits hospitals gain by switching from legacy phone service to SIP trunking, decision-makers find the following examples among the most compelling.

Modernization without Costly Hardware Upgrades

Hospitals investing in SIP trunking don’t need to replace their current phone system to benefit from the positive attributes of cloud-hosted communication solutions. Most business phones made by manufacturers in the 1990s are already SIP-enabled. Hospitals with older systems—phones without a data jack—may purchase inexpensive analog-to-telephone adapters (ATAs). A single adapter can accommodate up to 24 analog ports.  

Predictable Monthly Charges

Many hospitals pay for each active phone line assigned to their account. Additional costs include monthly equipment charges, fees to enable long-distance and international calling, directory assistance, state telecommunication surcharges, and multiple applications for text messaging, video conferencing, and other communication essentials. Their total charges can vary significantly from month to month. 

With SIP trunking, hospitals know the cost of their services upfront, and there are no additional charges or per-minute fees for long-distance communication. Plus, all international calls are competitively priced.

Integration with Microsoft Teams

More than a million organizations use Microsoft Teams as their default messaging service. Hospitals subscribing to Teams often use the communication and collaboration platform for virtual appointments, team collaboration, creating and managing schedules, and simplifying multiple business practices. With SIP trunking integrated into Microsoft Teams, end users have impressive enterprise voice features, including advanced call routing, auto attendants, and call recording. Additionally, they can connect to any cellphone or landline from a single, unified platform.

Unparalleled Service Flexibility & Scalability

Hospitals migrating to cloud-hosted business voice don’t have to pay third-party technicians to expand their communication capabilities as their departments grow. Instead, system administrators can add end-users to their accounts at will from their portals. That’s something that works both ways. 

The number of active users with access to their user-friendly communication interface can also be downsized without penalty when staffing needs change. Since there’s no need to pay for unutilized services, hospitals investing in SIP trunking are slashing their communication costs by as much as 50%.  

Communication-Enhancing Add-Ons

Many hospitals use a short message service (SMS) to send interactive appointment reminders, urgent alerts, and patient feedback requests (and more). With the right SIP trunking service provider, account administrators can subscribe to business SMS as an add-on service for relevant staff members, as well as several other communication-enhancing features like fax-to-email and inbound DID numbers, which give remote workers the appearance of working from a central location.

Lower Maintenance Costs  

A SIP trunking service is unlikely to eliminate the need to keep an IT team on a hospital’s payroll. It can, however, give those specialists more time to devote to other tasks. Instead of burning through payroll hours to identify the cause of poor call quality, repairing loose connections, or replacing outdated equipment, hospitals subscribing to cloud-hosted SIP trunk services have a team of dedicated communication experts working behind the scenes on their behalf 24/7 to ensure superior call quality and optimal performance.  

Advanced Security & Disaster Recovery

A hospital’s need for privacy-protecting HIPPA compliance is non-negotiable. Decision-makers investing in top-tier SIP trunking services can count on getting the latest advances in data encryption. They also receive their required unique user ID control access, audit logs, and role-based access control on a georedundant network protected with AI-enhanced security features that detect and deter suspicious activity.

Selecting providers with robust backup systems ensures little risk of losing connectivity due to outages. Experienced providers also employ multiple gateways nationwide to eliminate the risk of any single point of failure. If a hospital’s internet service is disrupted for any reason, incoming calls are instantly routed to an alternative number.  

Maintaining Existing Carrier Relationships

Some SIP trunking service providers require their subscribers to switch to an affiliated ISP as a condition of service. Hospital administrators, however, may not have the option of terminating their relationship with their local phone service provider or choosing a different ISP. Contract termination fees can be costly. 

That’s why top-tier providers leave those decisions to their client’s discretion—an option known industry-wide as “bring your own carrier” (BYOC). With the right provider, hospitals also have the advantages of pay-as-you-go, month-to-month, contract-free service and the option of choosing volume pricing.

Improve Your Communication, Productivity, and Much More with SIP Trunking

SIP trunking service providers are helping hospitals nationwide reduce the cost of communication with cloud-hosted solutions that improve efficiency and optimize productivity. With the right provider, your facility can count on exceptional call quality, unparalleled flexibility, and the scalability needed to accommodate your current and future communication needs.  

The best SIP trunking platforms give every end-user on your account the benefits of a Tier 1 network, excel in customer service, and protect your interests with AI-enhanced monitoring designed to detect and deter suspicious activity. To learn more about the many benefits of SIP trunking for hospitals, visit SIP.US.At SIP.US, we offer a fast setup of a fully automated, self-service environment and a no-obligation free trial that gives you 60 minutes of calling to ensure everything works to your satisfaction. Get started today in less than 60 seconds to see the difference SIP trunking can make for your hospital.