June 08, 2026
Mitel Targets the Communication Delays Slowing Healthcare Staff
Mitel has launched a healthcare communications portfolio built around clinical workflows, pulling bedside terminals, alarm routing, dispatch consoles, and contact centre tools into one stack aimed at hospitals.
Hospitals run on tools built for offices, and often clinicians lose time working around them. “Our focus is on giving healthcare professionals the right tools for their specific workflows, not generic tools they have to work around,” said Martin Bitzinger, Senior Vice President of Product Management at Mitel. Mitel commissioned research from Vanson Bourne to size the problem and found two-thirds of healthcare workers report delays completing tasks because of communication issues, and 64% feel pressured to “make it work” with systems not designed for their jobs. When a nurse cannot reach the right colleague, or dispatch cannot warn an emergency room before an ambulance arrives, a delay turns into a clinical risk.
What’s in Mitel’s Healthcare Communications Portfolio
The portfolio runs across three layers: unified communications, critical communications, and patient-facing engagement.
It includes Mitel CX for contact centre and patient interactions, Mitel WX for hospital operations (due later in 2026), and Mitel Xpert for command and dispatch. OpenScape Alarm Response routes nurse calls, fire alerts, and IoT sensor signals to mobile staff within seconds. HiMed, a bedside terminal, links patient infotainment to alarming and virtual care so requests reach the right team without phone tag. The new H60 AI DECT Headset adds one-touch, voice-command access to Mitel Workflow Studio, letting staff navigate clinical tasks hands-free during patient transport.
How the Contact Centre Fits into Patient Care
Healthcare organisations are rethinking the contact centre’s role in care. Providers increasingly route patients through digital front doors, such as apps, portals, and chatbots before a human is involved, and Mitel wants its CX routing and automation to absorb that volume, folding bedside engagement, virtual visits, and clinical messaging into single workflows and automating appointment setting and patient preparation. That automation arrives as the contact centre takes on more.
Healthcare CX teams already lean on AI bots to gather patient intent and prefill forms, reserving agents for cases that need judgment, a pattern spreading across the sector as routine tasks move to software and agents inherit the harder interactions.
Tom Boyle, Head of Telecoms at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHSFT, which runs five acute hospitals, said the requirement is non-negotiable: “When someone makes a crash team call, there simply must be dial tone.”
VCCS and Mitel Xpert are available now. Health Station HiMed is on sale across European and international markets, with Mitel WX scheduled to follow later this year.
The company first started building out its vertical-specific communications portfolio for high-stakes sectors in March, where it announced three-pillar approach: mission-critical alert and response systems, workflow-integrated communications, and enhanced mobility for frontline staff.
