4 Reasons Mobile Printers Are Home Healthcare Game Changers
Lost in all the buzz around the benefits mobile technology brings to the world of home healthcare, are mobile printers; forced take a back seat to their glitzier cousins such as the latest tablet or innovative smartphone app. But home health agencies on top of their game are increasingly discovering the value advanced mobile printers can deliver to professionals in the field. David Crist, President of Brother Mobile Solutions, shared his perspective on how mobile printers can transform patient care delivery for home health providers.
Q: What benefits does mobile printing bring to healthcare?
Crist: I would identify four key reasons: to ensure compliance with CMS rules and mandates, to help improve the patient experience and patient safety, to support care team collaboration, and to boost care provider productivity
Q: What do mobile printers do to help with CMS compliance?
Crist: Let me give you a little background. Earlier this year, CMS issued its final rule for Home Health Conditions of Participation, outlining the requirements home health and hospice agencies must meet to qualify for Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement. The provisions will go into effect as early as July 13, 2017 although an extension is being negotiated at this writing. Either way, agencies have little time to prepare for compliance.
One of the new provisions added is Section 484.60(e) regarding “Written Information to the Patient,” which requires that health providers provide written information to the patient and caregiver describing the schedule for visits, medication schedule and instructions, treatments administered, and other instructions related to patient care. This replaces the previously proposed requirement to provide a written plan of care to every patient.
Armed with mobile printers, clinicians can print full-page instructions from virtually any smartphone, tablet or PC and immediately hand them to patients and/or family members and caregivers during a home visit, ensuring compliance with the January 2017 CMS rule. Plus, updated instructions incorporating any revised instructions can easily be provided every visit.
Q: What role do mobile printers play in improving both the patient’s experience and safety?
Crist: The ability to print teaching guides to help educate patients, families, and caregivers about patient conditions and proper treatment — including administering the right doses of the right medications at the right time and avoiding potentially harmful drug interactions — is critical to providing an excellent, and safe, patient experience. Printed documents can help convey complex information in what may be an emotionally charged situation, which can prove crucial to patient safety as well as help prevent hospital readmissions and the resulting Medicare reimbursement penalties for providers.
Q: Collaboration and communication are critical when several care providers are involved on a patient’s care team. How do mobile printers help?
Crist: Mobile printers make it easy to leave a written copy of updated clinical notes and care instructions right in the patient’s home, which is vital given multiple members of a patient’s care team are likely to visit at different times during each week or month. Access to the printed documents supports a collaborative approach to care, ensuring whenever anyone visits the patient’s home, care decisions can be based on the latest information.
Q: What’s the impact of mobile printing on the productivity of home healthcare professionals?
Crist: By enabling clinicians to print consent, waiver, and refusal of service forms and get the required signatures on the spot, mobile printers can save valuable time for busy clinicians — along with speeding proper treatment. Of course, it goes without saying being able to print any necessary instructions rather than handwriting them also saves time as well as helps minimize the risk for error. In a nutshell, mobile printing capability allows busy clinicians to focus on patient care, not time-consuming administrative tasks.
Q: What do you recommend home health providers look for when selecting mobile printers?
Crist: Obviously, size matters. They need to be small and lightweight enough to be carried around all day in a backpack or purse. Clinicians should also be able to seamlessly print from any mobile device, EHR platform or home health system without the need to download any special drivers or interfaces. Long battery life is a must, too. And last but not least, thermal mobile printers with no inks or toners to maintain or replace are economical, reliable performers.