Streamlining the Point of Care with Clinical Mobility
One of the biggest risks and frustrations for home health workers and patients is when a caregiver doesn’t have the right clinical information and communication tools at their fingertips. It’s also a big concern for home health agency owners and clinical leaders who need to make sure workers are delivering the right care efficiently and minimizing patient safety risks and liabilities.
If home health workers have to carry paperwork or go back-and-forth to an office or desktop PC to access patient records, decision support, the latest imaging or lab results, or other critical information, it wastes time and creates delays and risks in care. Another common problem is inefficient or inaccurate scheduling and routing, with workers potentially being sent to the wrong location, or along a less efficient route, or having to wait 20 minutes because scheduling wasn’t coordinated properly and a patient isn’t available when they arrive.
Also, if workers can’t communicate in with managers and staff in real time, this further complicates things and creates more delays and obstacles in getting to the right locations at the right time and administering the right care.
Unfortunately, this is the reality that many home health workers and patients face every day. If systems and medical information aren’t properly mobilized, digitized and integrated, they can’t access and share update and accurate information in real time. That means home health workers are often operating in the dark, under adverse circumstances, and without proper decision support, so patients don’t get up-to-date care and are left at greater risk.
This creates a dangerous, disjointed and negative experience for patients, and it increases the risk of costly mistakes and medical errors that could be disastrous for patients and home health agencies.
Fortunately, you can dramatically increase cost-saving efficiency, minimize liabilities, and enhance patient safety by executing a clinical mobility strategy. Mobility puts real-time information at home health workers’ fingertips, giving them mobile and on-demand access to patient records, imaging, lab results, FDA device information, documentation, and more. It provides immediate access to all the software apps, systems and communication tools they need, so the entire point of care becomes vastly safer and more efficient.
By combining healthcare tablets with your EMR or other mobile apps, you can put the power, connectivity and information of a desktop PC in the hands of caregivers:
Mobile access to EMR, imaging, lab results, inventory, etc.
Push-to-talk (PTT) inside and outside the four walls
Voice calls with mobile access to your PBX
Secure text messaging
Mobile alarms and alerts
Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth and NFC connectivity
Octa-core processing for resource-intensive apps
Hi-res video streaming for better collaboration
4GB RAM and 32GB Flash memory
Built-in barcode scanning with 1D/2D data capture
Disinfectant-ready design for safe and easy cleaning
Tablets provide these capabilities in a larger, slate-style device, with more screen space to display patient records, medical data and images while delivering real-time access to information and communications.
However, no matter which device size or form factor you choose, you can combine mobile computing with mobile or desktop printing, labeling and scanning technologies to create a complete system for automating, digitizing, and streamlining the point of care. And you can integrate your mobile solutions with an EMR and even external, third-party systems with out-of-the-box interoperability to give home health workers access to the latest patient information and decision support.
In practical terms, it means home health workers can access things such as blood work results that were just processed 45 minutes ago, radiology and imaging results from a different clinical entity, or a primary care doctor’s notes from speaking to an oncologist. All of this information can be delivered to workers in real time to provide better decision support.
Additionally, with solutions such as Zebra’s WorkforceConnect, home health workers can use push-to-talk, make voice calls, or send secure texts from a mobile device to other team members and the right contacts related to each patient. This enables real-time communication for further information sharing and collaboration.
As home health workers are able to access information and communications in real time and work more efficiently, it not only improves healthcare outcomes but frees up more time to focus on patient interactions and visit more patients. It also makes home healthcare delivery a much easier and more enjoyable experience, which increases job satisfaction for home health workers and helps agencies with recruiting and retention.
For patients, they see that their care is accurate, well-informed, and well-coordinated, which boosts their confidence, comfort and satisfaction. For home health agency owners and leaders, clinical mobility helps reduce liability and risks, minimizing the chance that a lack of information, decision support, or other crucial details will create patient safety risks or legal liabilities.
Instead of struggling with informational blind spots or slow and disconnected systems, patients, workers and the agency can all benefit from a holistically mobile and digital system that unifies and streamlines the point of care. And with a managed healthcare mobile services and technology provider, you can achieve all of this without taking on the burden of deploying, maintaining and supporting your clinical mobility solutions. You can outsource the task to experts who deploy, manage and support all of your technologies and mobile integrations so you don’t have to.
