University of Kentucky Healthcare – Mobile Point of Care (MPoC) – from Proof of Concept through Implementation

Two years ago, Jan Bates, Director of Infrastructure Services, Medical Center Information Services says she and her colleagues recognized interest in—and a need for—mobility at the point of care at UK HealthCare. That led them on a path to searching for MPOC solutions for their organization. “In talking with Intel we saw the Motion Computing C5s, we brought them in and we started those discussions.” She notes that initially it took some work to get the clinicians together to establish the proof of concept—yet this was an important step because the clinicians work together as a team at the bedside.

Facility profile

• University of Kentucky HealthCare (UK HealthCare) Lexington, Kentucky
• 600-bed Level 1 trauma center
• Equipped to handle more than 30,000 discharges/year
• Academic medical center
• 1000 full-time, part-time, and adjunct clinical faculty
• 500 resident physicians
• Shares a campus with six health care education colleges:
  • Medicine
  • Dentistry
  • Nursing
  • Pharmacy
  • Allied Health
  • Public Health

Needs

Two years ago, Jan Bates, Director of Infrastructure Services, Medical Center Information Services says she and her colleagues recognized interest in—and a need for—mobility at the point of care at UK HealthCare. That led them on a path to searching for MPOC solutions for their organization. “In talking with Intel we saw the Motion Computing C5s, we brought them in and we started those discussions.” She notes that initially it took some work to get the clinicians together to establish the proof of concept—yet this was an important step because the clinicians work together as a team at the bedside.

“Technology is integral to the future of healthcare and healthcare at the University of Kentucky. We are using it as the backbone. It is the infrastructure and its job is to facilitate high quality, efficient, safe, cost effective patient care.” Dr. Carol Steltenkamp, Chief Medical Information Officer, UK HealthCare.

Process—Hands-on Pilot Program

At UK HealthCare, the journey from proof of concept to a pilot program and full implementation was significant, and worth the effort.

Frustration with mobile carts led UK HealthCare administrators to look for a mobile point of care solution that was small and lightweight enough to take easily from room to room. They decided to partner on a pilot project with Motion Computing and Intel. In a two-week clinical validation study at a medical/surgical unit the University of Kentucky Healthcare’s Chandler Hospital, the C5 was deployed and used by clinicians with normal workflows in conjunction with the hospital’s existing Eclipsys Sunrise Clinical Manager (SCM). Clinical staff across disciplines (nurses, physicians, respiratory therapists, and pharmacists) used the C5 for point-of-care documentation and were satisfied with the C5’s mobility, ease of look-up, and data entry. After the pilot was in place, it was evident that the facility also needed the device to be cleanable for infection control and to have sufficient battery life to keep going for a full shift.

Process—Lessons Learned

The team at UK HealthCare gained some valuable knowledge during the pilot, which they leveraged for deployment.

Infrastructure—The team realized that they needed to improve their wireless infrastructure before full deployment. The hospital environment is inherently dynamic and the wireless infrastructure needs to accommodate constant movement. The UK HealthCare team found it necessary to improve their wireless infrastructure to achieve the MPOC functionality they were looking for.

Teamwork—It took a coordinated effort from all departments to make the deployment work. A case in point was implementing biometric sign-on—clinicians realized that a finger swipe was a quicker, easier way to sign on to the system—and the organization made that happen. After a coordinated IT effort involving those responsible for security, applications, software, infrastructure, hardware, and of course input from clinicians—the biometric sign-on was implemented successfully.

Follow-up training—After implementation it was evident that MPOC users optimized their learning when training was reinforced. One UK HealthCare administrator recommends choosing super-users within a facility to serve as role models/mentors. After an hour of initial training per user, monthly follow-up training plus additional leave-behind information was useful.

Clinical and administrative staff at UK HealthCare realized that the Motion C5 offered them a number of advantages to solve their workflow and infection control needs, plus the mobility necessary for documentation at the patient bedside and secure remote access campus-wide.

In conjunction with UK HealthCare’s existing Eclipsys SCM system, the C5 supported multiple workflows and applications without introducing an infection control risk. UK HealthCare is now in the process of introducing the C5 to other areas of the hospital.

Infection control

“Infection control is a challenge for every acute care facility. By bringing mobile point of care solutions into our facility it was incumbent upon us not to introduce a new source of infection. As part of our pilot we did cultures of all our deployed solutions and found no culture growth beyond what would be anticipated as normal baseline.” Dr. Carol Steltenkamp.

Workload help

”We move constantly in the hospital—your patient load on the floor may be five to six patients and you’re constantly moving from room to room… I always have my C5 tablet by my side and it goes with me pretty much everywhere I go.” Janice Bugg, Registered Nurse.

Deployment and Beyond

With the Motion C5, nurses are now able to verify allergies, orders, results, and current medications at the point of care. The C5 lets physicians access SCM and other applications—wirelessly and securely—throughout the campus. Because it is so easy to clean with standard germicidal agents, the C5 is compliant with infection control policies in place at UK HealthCare.

One physician noted that an added benefit of the C5 is as a tool for patient education. He now shares data with patients at the bedside without having to worry about breaching confidentiality.

To date, UK HealthCare has deployed 100 Motion C5 units and is evaluating further deployment this year.