How Mobile Devices Help Hospitals Enhance Patient Care

As health care consumers, we increasingly seek out hospitals and health care providers that provide the best quality of care and an overall satisfying experience. To meet that desire and to extend care outside of the hospital, providers want to better “connect” their doctors and nurses to their patients, turning their staff into “connected clinicians.”

By equipping more doctors and nurses with mobile devices and portable tools, patients can receive the focused care they desire and greater interaction with hospital staff. Connectivity not only improves the experience of doctors and nurses, it has a direct, positive impact in the quality of care patients receive. A global leader in data collection solutions and mobile computers, Honeywell is seeing increasing interest in the health care market for its industry-leading technology.

With more than 5,600 acute care hospitals (roughly 1 million hospital beds) in the United States alone, there’s a significant opportunity for healthcare providers to increase efficiency, improve patient safety and reduce errors using Honeywell connected technology. “The logic is simple – a more efficient nurse is going to have greater quality time with patients, and therefore, better outcomes and better patient satisfaction. The point-of-care is where this new clinical smartphone is helping to make the most difference,” said Doug Brown, Healthcare marketing manager at Honeywell Sensing and Productivity Solutions. “With its quick data capture and instant and reliable access to communication and information resources, nurses are able to spend more real-time with their patients.” “It also allows them to be mobile and remotely monitor patients at all hours of the day instead of spending valuable time checking a machine. If an alarm goes off, instant messages are sent in real-time to nurses’ devices, so they can then respond promptly or attend to the patient themselves.”

In addition to providing the highest quality of patient care, hospitals today are facing pressure from new U.S. government health care mandates to improve patient safety and reduce medical errors. Errors in specimen labels are a big patient safety issue, and it’s easily addressed by printing labels at the bedside as specimens are collected.

Another safety issue often experienced in hospitals is “alarm fatigue.” This happens when alarms on patient-monitoring devices create so much noise day and night—beeping, pinging and ringing – that hospital staff ignore them, turn them off or just stop hearing them. In fact, a few years ago the University of California San Francisco logged 2.5 million alarms in five UCSF adult intensive care units in 31 days. It found 88.8 percent of them were false alarms. Adoption of technology that drives alarms through filtering software and then forwards only important messages to staff smartphones is key in reducing alarm fatigue.

Lastly, connected devices enable hospital staff to communicate efficiently and effectively through secure
calls and text messages. With a touch-screen interface, handheld mobile computers provide hospital staff with full access to patient data, medical device status, clinical alarm events and secure communications
with the care team from anywhere in the hospital. Now with the entrance of rugged mobile devices to the healthcare industry, clinicians are digitally connected like never before, increasing nurse productivity as well as patient safety and satisfaction in the process.

Outside of the hospital, connected devices play a significant role in helping individuals manage their own health. Honeywell’s Genesis Touch wireless remote patient monitor allows individuals to gain better control of their chronic conditions by monitoring their vital signs. In addition, the LifeStream Management Suite clinical software enables daily oversight by healthcare professionals so they can proactively intervene when a patient’s biometrics are outside of ideal parameters. There is no better time to redefine the patient experience, and Honeywell remains committed to developing innovative solutions that improve patient care.

Learn more about how Honeywell enhances operations within hospitals, or…Learn how Honeywell helps consumers take an active part in managing their own health.

Vist cdw.ca/honeywell for more information.