{"id":10233,"date":"2014-08-18T09:30:53","date_gmt":"2014-08-18T15:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barcodesinc.com\/news\/?p=10233"},"modified":"2019-09-10T13:50:17","modified_gmt":"2019-09-10T19:50:17","slug":"mobile-device-convergence-in-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.barcodesinc.com\/news\/mobile-device-convergence-in-healthcare\/","title":{"rendered":"Mobile Device Convergence in Healthcare"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2014-08-18_1020\"Smartphones have transformed the way healthcare providers<\/a> communicate, and these mobile devices are poised to revolutionize the way hospitals deliver care in 2014 and beyond.<\/p>\n

Texting long ago surpassed voice calls as the favored method of communication among the general population, and it is rapidly gaining favor in hospitals. Doctors and nurses already exchange patient related texts on their own personal phones at many facilities, and as more hospitals issue mobile devices<\/a> to employees, the ability to communicate quickly and access and update patient data<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0on the move has become a critical function.<\/p>\n

Deploying mobile, flexible, and reliable IT tools to\u00c2\u00a0caregivers is a top priority for provider organizations\u00c2\u00a0that not only need to meet new regulatory and technology requirements, but want to do so efficiently. At Cedars-Sinai Hospital in California, for example,\u00c2\u00a0the combination of smartphones and a new software solution to help prioritize alarms resulted in faster response times for emergency conditions, and a 50 percent reduction in overhead pages. Laboratory values are received 10 minutes faster and nurses are able to spend more time at the bedsides of patients<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0who require their attention, according to a case study\u00c2\u00a0published by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.<\/p>\n

The passage of the The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, or ACA) have established new incentives to promote technology adoption, and created new regulations related to outcomes, patient safety, and documentation. In response, hospitals and other healthcare facilities have deployed a dizzying array of technology, from electronic medical record (EMR) systems and networked medical monitoring devices, to bar code scanners for medication administration at the bedside and hospital-provided mobile phones to improve team communication. While these efforts have provided improvements in patient safety and\u00c2\u00a0data sharing, they have also produced a patchwork\u00c2\u00a0of point solutions and a belt-full of hardware (pagers, pendants, VOIP phones, scanners<\/a>) for nurses and doctors to carry. In the case of EMR systems, these technology initiatives have also produced complaints from caregivers that they are tethered to desktops or bulky workstations on wheels (WOWs) in order to update patient charts and view test results.<\/p>\n

For nurses, this onslaught of new technology has only added to the stress and occasional chaos of the hospital floor. As an increasing number of electronic medical devices have been added to hospital rooms to help monitor patient vitals and deliver medication, the number of alarms and alerts has gone up exponentially. This has resulted in what is known in the industry as alarm fatigue, and it can have deadly consequences.<\/p>\n

Any visitor to a hospital can attest to the nearly nonstop\u00c2\u00a0barrage of beeps, buzzes and overhead pages. Most\u00c2\u00a0of these alarms are not critical \u00e2\u20ac\u201d an oxygen sensor\u00c2\u00a0may have detached from a patient\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fi nger, or a wire came unplugged. According to data from The Joint\u00c2\u00a0Commission, as many as 85 to 99 percent of those\u00c2\u00a0alarms do not actually require staff members to take\u00c2\u00a0any action. Clinicians begin to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153tune out\u00e2\u20ac\u009d those alarms\u00c2\u00a0over time, and if a particular piece of equipment generates a high number of unnecessary alarms, nursing staff have even been known to turn down or turn off those alarms. That can result in fatalities. According to the FDA, there were more than 200 deaths linked to alarm monitoring between 2005 and 2010.<\/p>\n

In some hospitals, alarms have been integrated with existing pager systems, but these solutions don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t provide enough alarm data for nurses to accurately gauge the severity of the alert, and may notify multiple nurses, who then have no way of knowing who else may be responding to the call.<\/p>\n

Telemetry nurses are generally tasked with monitoring these alarms, viewing patient data on screens at the nursing station and functioning as virtual air traffic controllers when it comes to dispatching staff to respond in person. Nurses spend time walking back and forth to the nursing station between visits to patient beds to assess patient status.<\/p>\n

New mobile solutions are emerging that will\u00c2\u00a0help hospitals optimize their efforts to improve\u00c2\u00a0communications. Care teams are replacing old VOIP\u00c2\u00a0phone systems with smartphones. EMR systems\u00c2\u00a0now feature support for mobile devices based on Windows, Android, and iOS platforms, and some even support two-way voice queries via smartphones. Medical devices are being integrated into hospital data networks. Providers want to consolidate these capabilities to produce tangible benefits for both staff and patients, and in a way that is more cost-effective and efficient than their legacy solutions.<\/p>\n

What is needed is a fully integrated, converged mobile device that can allow nursing staff to access EMR information, respond to alarms and alerts, communicate with patients while on the move, scan bar coded patient wristbands<\/a> and medications, and share information with other caregivers in real time.<\/p>\n

The Converged Mobile Device<\/strong><\/p>\n

Legacy solutions have left nurses and other caregivers saddled with an array of proprietary devices including pagers, VOIP phones, bar code scanners, voice pendants, and other hardware. Migrating to a converged mobile device can lighten the load for the nursing staff, both literally and figuratively. By doing so, hospitals can reduce the complexity of the nursing IT tool belt and prevent medical errors caused by alarm and alert fatigue.<\/p>\n

By consolidating functions on one device and providing quick access to medical records, drug information, and instant communication with physicians and co-workers, these solutions also empower nurses to make better, faster decisions. Mobility allows nurses to respond promptly to alerts and patient\u00c2\u00a0requests, armed with real-time chart data and medical equipment readings. They can also query physicians and other nurses much faster than they could using overhead paging and voice calls, which helps them to provide better care. These converged devices can also reduce technology complexity and costs for already over-taxed hospital IT departments that currently have to support multiple devices and systems.<\/p>\n

For the healthcare environment, a converged mobile device is not just a consumer-grade, off-the-shelf smartphone. While these applications do run on the familiar Android, iOS and Windows mobile platforms, they must include a hospital-grade bar code scanner; provide extended battery life sufficient to last an entire shift on a single charge; be rugged enough to be dropped to concrete without shattering the display; and be able to withstand regular cleaning with caustic, hospital-grade disinfectant cleansers.<\/p>\n

Operationally, these devices must be able to run a\u00c2\u00a0variety of healthcare applications and support multiple messaging platforms so that healthcare organizations can glean the full benefits of mobility. Optimally, users of a converged mobile device in a hospital setting should be able to:<\/p>\n