Hospitals Using Tablets to Improve EMR Access

Some high profile hospitals are turning to tablets as a way to give physicians better access to EMRs when they’re walking the halls.  Using tablets is seen as a way of working around desktops’ limitations in making better use of EMRs’ capabilities, according to MedPageToday.

For example, back in 2010, the University of Chicago School of Medicine issued tablets to all hundred 15 internal medicine residents. After a year, three quarters of residents reported tablets help them finish tasks more quickly and spend more time on direct patient care.

In another example, the Cleveland Clinic is pilot testing the use of tablets with a few sectors of its workforce, such as its rapid response teams. Using tablets, clinicians can look up patient data on the way to the patient was crashing and be better prepared when they arrive.

In yet another instance, the University Of Pittsburgh Medical Center is testing the use of Windows tablets with cardiologists. The medical center has developed special software allowing physicians to jump between different mobile apps without having to reenter patient information to do their work.

These are just examples of how hospitals can turn mobile devices into effective extensions of the EMR, said David Collins, senior director of mHIMSS, the mobile wing of HIMSS. “If you can spend $300 on a tablet and issue these to providers so that they’re more mobile, it’s really a minimal cost for the payoff,” Collins told MedPageToday. Although, John Lynn makes a pretty good counter argument for why IT admins prefer the more expensive Windows 8 tablets over iPads or Android tablets.

These are just a few early examples of how hospitals can use tablets to make access to patient data simpler. Over the next year or two expect to see far more examples of tablet use in hospitals, as it’s become increasingly clear that they can help enhance the use of clinical data, on the spot when clinicians need it.

About the author

Anne Zieger

Anne Zieger is a healthcare journalist who has written about the industry for 30 years. Her work has appeared in all of the leading healthcare industry publications, and she's served as editor in chief of several healthcare B2B sites.

   

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