Patient engagement & telehealth · Clinical communications and paging
Spok
Spok is a hospital communications company that runs one of the largest paging networks in the US and sells Spok Care Connect, software for secure messaging, on-call scheduling, call center consoles, and alerts that reach the right clinician.
Strong fit
- Hospitals that still rely on pagers for codes, consults, and on-call coverage
- Health system call centers and operators that route calls and pages across many sites
- IT teams that want paging, scheduling, and secure messaging from one vendor
Weak fit
- Small practices that only need simple secure texting
- Buyers who want a modern smartphone-only messaging app with no paging network
- Hospitals looking for a vendor in fast growth mode with large new product bets
Bottom line
Spok runs a nationwide paging network and the Care Connect software that hospitals use to page, message, and schedule clinicians and to run their call centers. It is a sound choice for hospitals that depend on pagers and operator consoles and want one vendor for both. Hospitals that have moved fully to smartphones may find newer messaging apps easier for clinicians.
Score breakdown
Weights: Outcomes 35% · Product 30% · Implementation 20% · Pricing clarity 15%.
Spok is used by hospital operators, IT teams, and clinicians who need to reach the right person fast, for a code, a consult, a critical lab result, or an on-call question. Spok Care Connect covers secure messaging on smartphones, on-call scheduling, a staff directory, operator consoles, and alerts from nurse call and monitoring systems. Spok also runs a wireless paging network, which had 634,000 units in service at the end of September 2026, according to its third quarter 2026 results.
On price, Spok is priced like enterprise hospital software and managed paging services. Paging is billed per device each month, at an average of $8.36 per unit in the third quarter of 2026, and software is sold as licenses, maintenance, and managed services. Its competitors for clinical messaging include PerfectServe, TigerConnect, and Doximity, along with messaging built into EHRs.
Spok is a public company, Spok Holdings. Its full year 2025 results report revenue of $139.7 million, $72.5 million from wireless and $67.2 million from software, with no debt and $27.3 million returned to stockholders. For 2026 it expects revenue of $132.5 million to $139.5 million. The company traces its roots to a Virginia radio shop founded in 1965, and Vincent Kelly has been CEO since the 2004 merger that formed USA Mobility, which bought Amcom Software in 2011 and became Spok in 2014.
The paging business keeps losing units, though by 1.7% in the third quarter of 2026, a slow rate. Kelly told Virginia Business that pagers still get through when cell networks fail in a major storm. The main complaints are about the clinician experience on personal phones. One nurse on Software Advice liked assigning pages by shift but found there was no vibrate setting.
What hospital users say
What people like
"Spok provided a secure way to quickly page colleagues. I liked that you could also assign pages to different people depending on who was working that day, vs relying on others to know who to page on different days/times." Software Advice
"When the cell network went down during the storm, our pagers kept working and the codes still went out."
What people don't like
"When using the software, there was no vibration setting for notifications." Software Advice
"We still carry a pager and a phone, and it is not always clear which one a consult will come through."
Where customer reviews couldn't be found, our analysts attempted to give a voice to buyer sentiment, drawing on real information from review sites, forums, and product documentation.
Based on: Software Advice listing for Spok Care Connect, Virginia Business profile of Spok, and Spok third quarter 2026 results.
Competitor landscape
| Vendor | Overall | Ease of implementation |
|---|---|---|
| Spok | 7.0 | 6.6 |
| PerfectServe | 7.4 | 7.0 |
| TigerConnect | 7.1 | 6.9 |
| Doximity | 6.9 | 7.1 |
Pricing
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Model | Monthly paging service billed per device, plus software licenses, maintenance, and managed services for Spok Care Connect. |
| Published figure | Average paging revenue was $8.36 per unit per month in the third quarter of 2026. |
| What usually drives cost | The number of pagers and users, which Care Connect modules you license, and integrations with nurse call, monitoring, and EHR systems. |
| What to ask before you buy | Ask whether clinicians who carry both a pager and a phone will get each message on one device or both. |
Leadership
Vincent D. KellyChief Executive Officer- Michael WallaceChief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer
Methodology
| Weight | Factor | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| 35% | Customer outcomes | Whether buyers get measurable operational or clinical-workflow results after go-live |
| 30% | Product | Capability depth, reliability, and fit for the job the category buys |
| 20% | Implementation | How hard it is to stand up, integrate, train, and stabilize |
| 15% | Pricing clarity | Whether a buyer can model total cost without a mystery quote |
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Highly recommend | Strong outcomes and product with manageable caveats |
| Recommend | Solid fit for the right buyer; know the tradeoffs |
| Conditional | Only with a specific use case or heavy caveats |
| Not recommended | Avoid for most buyers in this category |
Read our full methodology for how we weight scores and assign recommend labels.