Always on call: iPhone
3G.
A community medical
center near Philadelphia, Doylestown Hospital relies on a mobile workforce of
360 independent physicians to provide a highly responsive healing environment
for thousands of patients. Those physicians stay connected 24/7 to colleagues and
hospital staff with their first responder: Apple iPhone 3G. With iPhone,
doctors get access to patients’ vital stats, medical reference applications,
and breaking health alerts to provide collaborative and efficient patient care.
Like most healthcare providers, Doylestown Hospital has an
inherently mobile workforce. And for years, the hospital’s IT team searched for
the right portable communications tool: a multi-function, indispensable
device that provides real-time information to community physicians.
“Physicians need
something that is a beeper and cell phone, and that allows them to get messages
and information about patients,” explains Dr. Scott Levy, Vice President and
Chief Medical Officer. Physicians also need on-the-fly access to patient and
clinical data stored in the hospital’s databases.
To meet these
requirements, Doylestown prescribed iPhone for its doctors and staff. Moving to
iPhone offers Doylestown doctors immediate time-savings benefits and
productivity gains. Physicians no longer have to rely solely on patient charts
or hospital computers to access information; instead, they can use iPhone to
retrieve the data wherever they are. “iPhone offers a major workflow
improvement for our physicians,” says Rick Lang, Doylestown’s Vice President and
Chief Information Officer.
Finger on the Pulse
iPhone became an
instant favorite among Doylestown physicians, in part due to its ease of use.
The IT department can activate each physician’s iPhone in less than five
minutes, and doctors have no trouble learning to use their new phones. “iPhone
is so intuitive that we have never trained doctors how to get information,”
Lang says.
Doylestown
physicians rely on iPhone features like push email, calendar, and contacts from
Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. In fact, a vital part of their workflow is using
push email on iPhone to receive the hospital’s time-sensitive email alerts.
The Doylestown
team appreciates iPhone’s crystal-clear voice capabilities as well. With some
smartphones, voice clarity is an issue, and entering phone numbers can be
time-consuming for busy doctors, Levy says. “But iPhone is just the opposite.
It’s a really good phone.” And with the help of repeaters, mobile users have
consistent cellular service on iPhone anywhere in the hospital, including ICU,
so they can be on call and available around the clock.
Secure Links to
Vital
One reason for
the enthusiastic adoption of iPhone at Doylestown is its ability to give
doctors secure mobile access to the hospital’s electronic medical records
system, MEDITECH Client/Server 6.0. “Literally anywhere a physician is in
the world, as long as that doctor has secure access to the Safari browser on
iPhone, they can access patient information,” says Levy.
Using iPhone and
MEDITECH, doctors can see everything needed for patient care, including vital
signs, medications, lab results, allergies, nurses’ notes, therapy results, and
even information about patient diet. “Every dictated report from every
specialist, or any radiographic image the patient has ever had, is available on
iPhone,” says Levy. “The iPhone has been remarkable in a lot of ways. The
capability to download clinical information in real time has been very
powerful.”
Since physicians
access MEDITECH only through Safari, Doylestown IT can set the same high level
of secure authentication and audit-trail security on iPhone that they maintain
with all Web-based medical records applications. Information is stored on the
server, so confidential information stays secure.
Point-of-Care
Assistant
iPhone also makes
a positive impact at patient point-of-care, helping physicians quickly answer
questions and make a well-informed diagnosis. Doylestown doctors access iPhone
medical reference applications such as Epocrates Essentials to help explain
diseases, interpret lab results, and provide drug information right at the
patient’s bedside. If a patient is concerned about interactions between
multiple drugs, the doctor can quickly double-check the medications with the
Epocrates app.
”Anything that
improves healthcare ultimately helps patients,” Levy says. “With more
applications and more iPhone use, we’ve seen clear, noticeable improvements in
patient care.”
The superior
image and wide screen of iPhone help Doylestown doctors explain surgical
procedures to patients, enhancing overall doctor-patient communication.
Patients appreciate seeing a visual indicator of what the doctor plans to do.
“The question used to be, ‘How do you have something that fits in your pocket,
but is large enough to view the information you need?’” says Levy. “With
iPhone, doctors can magnify and get a virtual screen of any size.”
At bedside and
beyond, iPhone helps the Doylestown medical team work more efficiently,
improving communications not only between doctors, but throughout the local
healthcare community. Above all, iPhone enables Doylestown physicians to
deliver better patient care.
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