Healthcare Mobile Carts Get Some Ink
By Ken Congdon, editor in chief, Health IT Outcomes
As EMR adoption continues to rise, so does the need to input and access patient data at the point of care. A primary method to enable this bedside communication is through the use of mobile computing/medication carts. Not only can these units improve staff productivity by allowing clinicians to access patient data from anywhere in a hospital, private practice, or other healthcare facility, but they can also enhance patient safety by ensuring secure and accurate medication administration.
Interest and demand for these mobile carts has definitely been fever-pitched since the EMR initiatives in ARRA (The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) went into effect. How do I know this? Well, every piece of content that we've posted on Health IT Outcomes specific to mobile cart solutions has been downloaded with fervor by our audience of healthcare IT professionals. Plus, we regularly receive inquiries from our audience for more information on mobile cart solutions. The problem? It seems that only a handful of educational mobile cart articles have been published.
Now, you might be thinking, "It's not surprising that there's not a plethora of educational content on mobile carts. What's there to know? They're basically desks on wheels used to transport PCs or laptops from one hospital room to another." This statement couldn't be more misguided. Today's mobile carting solutions are technology-rich — with a variety of personal computing, ergonomic, power, security, and storage options. Ensuring you select the best mix of carting solutions (at the right price point) for your healthcare facility requires a thorough examination of your clinical and patient care needs, and a careful evaluation of the carting solutions available from numerous vendors.
So, how do you begin this process if limited mobile cart educational articles are available? Well, Health IT Outcomes is addressing this demand for informative content by producing an original three-part editorial series titled "A Tutorial On Healthcare Mobile Computing Carts." This series of articles gathers the mobile cart industry's foremost experts to provide insight on key topics such as criteria for selecting the best mobile cart solution for your environment, the latest mobile cart technology advancements and their impact on the healthcare industry, best practices for mobile cart deployment, and more.
The first installment in this series titled "Selecting The Mobile Cart Solution That's Best For You" is included in this week's email newsletter. The remaining installments will appear in our next two email newsletters, so stay tuned. I hope these original articles provide you with valuable information that will help you and your staff make informed mobile cart technology purchases for your healthcare facility.
Read Part 1: Selecting The Mobile Cart Solution That's Best For You
Ken Congdon is Editor In Chief of Health IT Outcomes. He can be reached at ken.congdon@jamesonpublishing.com.