Readmission rates continue to cause problems for health care providers, and it seems like the issue is related to admission and discharge practices.
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Health care providers have a duty to keep patients safe, and current readmission statistics indicate that these organizations can do so by deploying mobile apps for admission and discharge. Simply put, mobile workflow solutions solve some of the most common problems leading to readmission.
According to Healthcare IT News, 37 percent of patients are discharged unaware of why they need prescribed medications. Mobile patient discharge apps can ensure that everyone goes home informed, as nurses use these solutions to complete task lists and double check information.
Additionally, the news source reported that 50 percent of patients who go to health care facilities without an appointment will be readmitted. The problem is that providers don’t have enough information, as collecting it on the fly is a challenge. Readmission rates can drop if health care providers use mobile patient admission apps from the get-go.
That’s all for today, check back with Mobilengine for more mobility news and tips.
Adam Dalnoki, Mobilengine’s CEO, brings IT and telecommunications expertise as an ex BCG consultant. He made a previous exit in a mobile payment start up and has held sales executive positions at Provimi and Kraft Foods.
Mobility has taken the health care industry by storm, as medical professionals quickly discovered that the miniature computer in their pockets and attached to their belts could improve the quality of care when mobile health care apps are installed. Now, demand for mobile workflow apps has exploded.
MIT Technology Review reported that at its EmTech conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Jeannette Tighe, from the HealthTech Advisory practice at Sagentia, explained that by the end of 2015, there will be 500 million smartphone users taking advantage of health care-related mobile apps. In addition, the market for those apps will be worth around $26 billion in 2017, as the world’s aging population demands cutting-edge medical care. However, with the ICD-10 implementation deadline on its way in only a few short months, doctors don’t have the time to devote to look at mobile workflow solutions.
The good news is that nurses are picking up the slack, and they are truly inspiring the health care industry to take more advantage of mobile apps. According to a recent report from InCrowd, 88 percent of resident nurses use smartphone apps on a daily basis to complete nursing work, while only 67 percent of medical residents used mobile apps for clinical care.
“88% of nurses use smartphone apps daily for nursing work.”
Simply put, nurses are leading the drive for a mobile health care industry, as these tools improve the quality of care they can deliver to patients. But what mobile workflow apps are they using? Let’s take a look at four of the most critical mobile health care apps.
1. Ward round apps
Patients often joke that they see their nurses more frequently than doctors, but there is good reason for this: RNs need to ensure that patients are always monitored.
Perhaps this is why mobile ward round apps have become such a critical part of nurses’ daily work routines. With this type of solution, RNs can record patients’ statuses, diagnoses and procedures, so when the doctor does come around, he or she will be ready to provide quality care.
Ward round apps also make nurses more productive. Mobilengine’s client Worcestershire NHS Trust managed to reduce the time RNs took to complete ward rounds by half with its mobile solution.
2. Patient admission and discharge apps
Traditional paper processes have made patient admissions and discharges lengthy and complex. This is why nurses love mobile apps that solve this problem, as they can easily access all necessary patient care information without taking their eyes off patients.
Armed with a solution for patient admission and discharge, RNs can ensure that every patient is suited to be admitted or discharged, without worrying about missing any critical steps or procedures.
Mobile health care apps make nurses’ jobs easier, resulting in higher quality of care and more productive staff members.
3. Procedure management apps
The health care sector is stressful and fast-paced, giving nurses little to no time to question actions or pause to make decisions. This has lead 52 percent of RNs to use their smartphones instead of asking a question of a nursing colleague, and 32 percent consult their mobile apps rather than bothering a doctor, according to InCrowd.
With procedure management apps, nurses can ensure that they are following procedures to the letter, reducing the chance of errors, saving precious time and improving their productivity in the process.
4. Patient feeding apps
Nurses are flooded with a wealth of patient information every minute, making it difficult to discern what’s critical and what’s fluff. Patient feeding data falls into the former category, as RNs must ensure that patients are always healthy by providing them with food and beverages accordingly. Prior to the development of mobile workflow solutions, keeping track of this information was difficult at best. However, thanks to patient feeding apps, nurses can quickly and easily identify which patients need nutrients before leaving the kitchen.
Health care professionals and mobile workflow apps belong together, and perhaps with the number of nurses using these solutions, doctors will slowly come around to adopting mobility – but maybe after ICD-10 is implemented.
Adam Dalnoki, Mobilengine’s CEO, brings IT and telecommunications expertise as an ex BCG consultant. He made a previous exit in a mobile payment start up and has held sales executive positions at Provimi and Kraft Foods.
Doctors and nurses have been using technology for decades, but health care providers have yet to truly embrace the 21st century. At many hospitals and clinics, health care professionals rely on desktop computers and large immovable equipment. As a result, doctors and nurses must always return to a station or PC, collecting information on the next patient in their rounds tour before repeating the processes over and over again.
The good news is that mobile fever is catching on, and now many health care professionals demand access to mobile devices and apps. According to Research Now, only 16 percent of doctors, nurses and other health care employees currently use mobile health apps, but 46 percent of these individuals plan on using these technologies to provide better care in the next five years. It seems that medical professionals aren’t the ones that need convincing.
A demand and no capacity to meet it
Instead, health care providers are hesitant about developing their own mobile apps in house due to the sheer demand. Gartner reported that by the end of 2017, the demand for mobile apps will be five times bigger than internal IT teams’ ability to create new solutions for employees.
“Mobile app demand will be 5 times bigger than IT teams‘ development capabilities.”
Gartner principal research analyst Adrian Leow explained that the cost to hire developers is only one hurdle that organizations must clear, with others ranging from the difficulty to create mobile health care apps to a lack of strategic planning when it comes to development. Compouding the issue is the demand for apps for every possible task. Nurses want ward round apps, administrators crave mobile patient admission apps, staff members need patient feeding and calories apps and doctors demand ICU/ITU apps.
The challenges to developing mobile health care apps has resulted in some organizations releasing no mobile apps at all.
“This is an indication of the nascent state of mobility in most organizations, with many organizations questioning how to start app development in terms of tools, vendors, architectures or platforms, let alone being able to scale up to releasing 100 apps or more,” said Leow.
Working with professionals
Health care providers can overcome their confusion in the initial phases of developing a mobility strategy. It just takes a little guidance and some help from mobile app development platform providers like Mobilengine.
As explained by Gartner, rapid mobile app development tools provide a great way to “bridge the gap between mobile app demand and supply,” as those in business roles can use these platforms to create solutions to actual problems in their organizations. For example, health care providers can take the time to determine what workflows can be supported by mobile apps. Tasks such as patient admission and discharge are perfect for mobile devices, while nurses will definitely demand a ward round app. Taking stock of what apps which employees want is a challenge in itself, let alone developing everything from ICU apps to early warning scoring apps.
Whether doctors and nurses want to use tablets or smartphones doesn’t matter with Mobilengine’s native mobile apps.
Developing those mobile apps in house is time-consuming and costly, but with support from Mobilengine, development will be more efficient and focused on improving core tasks in a hospital or clinic. Gartner noted that 55 percent of organizations work with companies like Mobilengine in a process called “mixed sourcing.” This is the best way to meet the demand of health care professionals, as the IT team has many other aspects of their internal systems to worry about. So, instead of spending a month developing a patient admission app, providers can spend a month working with Mobilengine’s experience developers and strategists to create a mobile health care app for every role.
Convincing the providers
It’s clear that doctors and nurses demand mobile apps, and solutions like Mobilengine’s make the development process for dozens of different health care tools possible to begin with. But health care providers need to see the value in allowing their employees to use mobile patient admission apps, ward round apps and many others that make their jobs easier.
So, let’s leave it at this: According to Research Now, 96 percent of health care professionals and mobile health app users agree that these solutions improve the quality of life – isn’t that what health care is about in the first place?
Adam Dalnoki, Mobilengine’s CEO, brings IT and telecommunications expertise as an ex BCG consultant. He made a previous exit in a mobile payment start up and has held sales executive positions at Provimi and Kraft Foods.
Mobile health care apps make nurses’ jobs easier, resulting in higher quality of care and more productive staff members.
Whether doctors and nurses want to use tablets or smartphones doesn’t matter with Mobilengine’s native mobile apps.
