Healthcare workers require clear, concise, and speedy communication systems to do their job, but that’s not always how things work.
Medical buildings, including hospitals, nursing homes, and clinics, are often chaotic and disorganized when it comes to communication.
Unless an organization has actively made the effort to upgrade their systems, they’re most likely using legacy technology, or worse, relying on manual methods.
Poor communication is the root of many problems in the healthcare sector, especially hospitals, where there are far more patients and doctors working at once.
Communication issues impact everything from patient wait times to providing accurate information to doctors and nurses.
When hospitals upgrade their communications technology, they tend to see a rise in worker efficiency as well as patient satisfaction, and one such upgrade is the implementation of mobile devices.
What are mobile devices in the healthcare sector?
When you think of a mobile device, you might picture a standard smartphone or tablet. That’s exactly the type of technology hospital staff use, with one difference: their devices are built specifically for the medical industry.
Mobile devices used in the healthcare sector include smartphones, tablets, mini computers, laptops, and even thermal printers.
On the outside, they look like any other device, but they are superior in terms of durability and features.
For instance, the devices, like Zebra printers, are rugged and built to withstand light impacts, shocks, and drops and the software is highly secured to meet HIPAA and other data privacy regulations.
Why do hospital workers need mobile devices?
Being able to communicate from anywhere is an essential part of a healthcare worker’s day.
Working in a hospital involves communication between nurses, doctors, surgeons, patients, families, and emergency personnel, like EMTs bringing patients into the emergency room.
- Fluid communications. A secure mobile device allows hospital workers to stay in touch with other team members from anywhere in the building (or outside). Workers won’t be slowed down or held back by the need to use a secure landline in the hospital to make their calls.
- Access to data. Since mobile devices provide access to the internet, hospital workers can connect to databases through applications whenever they need information. For example, they might need to reference a patient’s list of medications or x-ray results. With a mobile device, they can do this right in the room with the patient, which greatly reduces the amount of time it takes to tend to and/or treat patients.
- Security. Healthcare workers are required to follow specific rules when handling, processing, and storing patient data under HIPAA and other data privacy laws. They can’t use personal devices for work without violating this law. Having a special, secure mobile device enables workers to communicate from anywhere, securely, with the convenience of a personal cell phone.
- Ability to create records. Sometimes hospital workers need to create records pertaining to their patients, and this is easy with a mobile device. Doctors and emergency workers can take photos to document injuries either on the scene of an accident or in the emergency room without having to bring the patient somewhere else. This can greatly improve the accuracy of diagnosing a patient and may help them with insurance claims.
Strong communication supports better patient care
In the U.S., patient outcomes and the quality of care are dropping at alarming rates. For example, medical errors harm or injure between 40,000-80,000 patients each year.
Many of these instances are caused by miscommunications or a lack thereof. For example, patients are frequently transferred from a nursing home to the hospital for treatment without any communication from their PCP.
The hospital staff then put those patients through expensive and unnecessary testing simply because they don’t have the patient’s history.
While a phone call is sometimes the best way to communicate a patient’s full medical history, doctors are often too busy.
However, the hospital can be granted access to a patient’s history through a mobile app, which would ensure they get the information even if that call is never placed.
Streamlined communication is better for hospitals and patients
Far too many payroll dollars are wasted because of communication problems and mishaps.
Hospitals waste millions of dollars because of this issue and patients have to deal with long wait times, misdiagnosis, wrong treatments, miscommunications, and more.
With handheld devices, communications between staff and patients would improve, hospitals would save money, and patient outcomes would improve.