Mobile Workstations Enhance Workflow, Improve Point-Of-Care

This white paper stresses the importance mobile workstations play as part of the strategic backbone to many hospital initiatives, impacting everything from patient safety to more efficiently documenting patient care.

Hospitals seldom evaluate mobile computing solutions in isolation; typically, they are part of much broader advances toward the electronic health record (EHR) and other health information technology (HIT) goals. As HIT evolves, however, so do the opportunities to use it to improve long-established workflow patterns. The question facing facilities is: How is HIT best leveraged to build both staff productivity and patient care quality? Very often the answer is found in point-of-care solutions. Nursing workflow provides a case-in-point.

Historically, a nurse might enter a patient's room, only to leave to visit both the supply and medication rooms before returning to the patient and providing the requisite care. After which she might walk to the nursing station to complete her charting, all before turning her attention to the next patient.

Unfortunately, the number of footsteps forced by this entrenched workflow is more than just an occupational nuisance. It has a direct bearing on the quality of patient care. Nurses have become adept at doing their jobs as quickly and efficiently as possible, but they simply cannot be two places at once. The time spent walking to a computer, supply room or medication room detracts from time spent face-to-face with patients.

Mobile computing solutions break this inefficient workflow by bringing patient information, supplies, and even medications securely to the point of care. Free from the need to chase down the tools needed to perform their jobs, nurses can devote more time to the productive care of each patient—which in turn enhances the entire patient experience.

Closer proximity, better patient care.

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