News Feature | July 11, 2014

App Shows Patients Treatment Schedules And More

Katie Wike

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

Some Apps Better Than Others At Promoting Well-Being

An app developed at Mount Sinai gives patients and their families an up-to-date schedule of upcoming treatments, procedures, and tests.

A new tablet-based app developed by Mount Sinai is giving patients and their families a real-time sense of where they will be during their hospital stay and which tests, procedures, and treatments will be performed. According to a press release from the hospital, the “Patient Itinerary” app comes on hospital iPads and also includes educational material for each hospital department.

“The ultimate goal with our Patient Itinerary app is to provide a real-time snapshot of clinical care information to make the hospital stay less stressful – and to make our patients better informed – all towards ensuring a good health outcome for those in our care,” said Kumar Chatani, MBA, Chief Information Officer for the Mount Sinai Health System. “Our Information Technology and Nursing Departments will continue to work together to refine an already successful rollout, and we believe Patient Itinerary will soon become a standard that other hospitals emulate.”

mHealth News reports the app is not only helping patients understand their hospital stay and boost morale, but hospital staff are also benefitting from it. It’s improving workflow and Mt. Sinai chief nursing officer Carol Porter told mHealth News, “It's helped everyone to look beyond the illness and the tests.”

“As those on the front lines of expert medical care, our nurses are often asked questions like, ‘When do I take my next dose of medication?’ or ‘How much longer until the surgery?’” said Carol Porter, DNP, RN, FAAN, Edgar M. Cullman Sr., Chair of the Department of Nursing at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Chief Nursing Office and Senior Vice President, The Mount Sinai Hospital. “The Patient Itinerary app not only puts that critical information at our fingertips – but also in the hands of our patients, and that’s a crucial component of quality care.”