Mobile Clinical Assistant Boosts Productivity By 60%

As hospitals adopt electronic medical records (EMRs), it becomes critical to provide clinicians with convenient access to those records at the point of care. The University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center tried deploying desktop PCs and computers on wheels (COW) to meet the demands of real-time EMR updates, but the limited portability of these devices impeded clinicians' workflow, limited information access, and made it difficult to fully utilize EMRs.

UCSF needed a more portable, mobile solution that allowed for constant access to EMRs. UCSF collaborated with GE Healthcare, Intel, and Motion Computing to determine how the Motion C5 could enhance patient care and clinician workflow. Compared to COW or desktop PCs, the Motion C5 is lighter and more portable, enabling nurses, physicians, and other clinicians to do their jobs on the move.

CUSTOMIZE YOUR WORKFLOW
UCSF integrated the Motion C5 into its workflow for patient vital sign collection. The pilot program showed vast improvements in nurse productivity and data collection accuracy. Nurses consistently preferred the Motion C5 over COW, because it allowed them to interact with patients at their bedside and also fit better into their work environment. While using the Motion C5, UCSF found that:

• Nursing productivity improved by approximately 60% for patient vitals acquisition, creating more time at the patient's bedside and a greater ability to see more patients.
• The proportion of patient documentation completed at the bedside or point of care increased by 20-25%, reducing the potential for data transcription error.
• Clinical data latency, the time between capturing vital sign data and entering it into the EMR, dropped by an average of more than 2 hours.
• Study data suggested charting accuracy improved by approximately 15%, with an 83% reduction in the number of data items to be transcribed.
• Nurses reduced the number of log-ins per shift from an average of 42 per nurse prior to the Motion C5, to an average of 12, freeing time to deliver more effective care.

The UCSF study findings prove that mobile technologies, like the Motion C5, not only improve patient care, but also are the future of healthcare.