For the past several months, all the buzz in healthcare information technology has centered around the “meaningful use” guidelines associated with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Most of the talk also has swirled around what’s needed in electronic health records (EHR) software to achieve this meaningful use –and then get a piece of the $19 billion in incentive funds tied to the adoption of electronic health records.
But since the stimulus money is being awarded to organizations based on the use of electronic health systems – not on the purchase of the systems -- it would seem that the selection of the right hardware to run the systems might come into play as well. The 125-page report, "Healthcare Computer System Markets and Trends in HIT Buying," does, as a matter of fact, hint at the hardware link. According to the study from New York-based Kalorma Information, ARRA should spur higher sales of computer hardware. The report predicts that hardware sales will grow at a faster pace than information technology spending as a whole in the near term, about 10.7% annually through 2013. For more information, go to: http://www. kaloramainformation.com/Healthcare-Computer-System-2303131/.
Certainly, making the connection to hardware adoption is not all that far-fetched. Take even a cursory look at the requirements and it becomes apparent that hardware choices could make a difference in the quest for meaningful use.
Consider the following: Although industry observers expect the definition of meaningful use to evolve over time, some expectations are already dyed in the legislative wool. For example, to achieve meaningful use, clinicians must be able to use the system to improve patient care through clinical decision support and to exchange standardized patient data among clinical and administrative stakeholders.
With such requirements in place, many facilities are testing and evaluating the Mobile Clinical Assistant (MCA) device, the main focus of this week’s virtual event on HealthcareGoesMobile.com The MCA enables clinicians to access patient care records at the point of care and document a patient's condition in real time. This can aid in reducing transcription errors, enhancing workflow, and delivering faster, safer care. Hardware vendors such as Motion Computing, Panasonic, Advantech and Philips FIMI are marketing MCAs that help organizations make significant improvements, including increase productivity, improve clinician satisfaction, better adhere to medication administration protocols and decrease latency in recording patient information.
For example, results from a series of usability studies conducted by Motion, Intel, hospital clients and leading software providers illustrate that Motion’s C5 mobile clinical assistant has produced results such as:
• 42% improvement in point of care (POC) documentation
• 80% reduction in data needing manual transcription, reducing the potential for human error
• Identification of 15 of 1,853 “near misses” at the point of medication administration
• And a decrease in transcription error rate from 25% to 7% due to increased POC documentation
Sounds like some pretty meaningful results – and some pretty important considerations for organizations looking to tap into the government’s incentive funds.
John McCormack participates in HealthcareGoesMobile.com as a community correspondent through Intel’s paid sponsorship with Health Data Management.
