Cox Speaks Healthcare

The challenge of delivering premium non-residential services is sometimes a matter of tailoring products to the unique requirements of vertical industries.

That appears to be what Cox Business has done regarding the communications needs of Gateway Healthcare, a Rhode Island-based, non-profit behavioral healthcare organization. (For more on cable telecommunications and healthcare, click here and here.)

Cox announced today that Gateway has moved its telecommunications services from a competitive provider to Cox Business.

"Cox Business accurately assessed our communications challenges and designed a solution that met our needs. As a result, we’ve gained additional capabilities and reduced our operational costs by 15 percent," said Scott DiChristofero, chief financial officer, Gateway Healthcare, in a statement.

With a staff of nearly 800 and more than 40 locations across Rhode Island, Gateway provides services to 14,000 adults and children each year. "The savings we’ve experienced with Cox are a welcome benefit, especially for a nonprofit in the current economic climate," DiChristofero added.

A key part of the solution is the Cox Business VoiceManager, an owned and managed business-class IP telephony service that Cox launched in the fourth quarter of 2007. The service integrates desktop phone, PC and wireless devices and can scale to deliver business continuity, unified messaging and other solutions.

In this case, Cox said the service would enable bulk email to groups of Gateway employees, four-digit internal calling and tracking of long-distance calling.

"Traditional phone solutions are a thing of the past; advanced IP feature platforms such as Cox Business VoiceManager are becoming table stakes for business-class communications," said Mark Scott, vice president, Cox Business New England, in the statement.

– Jonathan Tombes

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