After reading over many articles about EHR/EMR software and integration, you begin to see a lot of similarity between the requests doctors, nurses and administrators have on their EHR platform and the mobile carts that are often used to carry the computing hardware. Take a few minutes to read Top 5 things my patients and I need in an EHR, and I’ll try to connect the dots.
#5 – Integration
The author talks about how EHR software needs to interact with PACS imaging devices, or even just with the images themselves. Medical computer carts have the same need, with PACS devices and others. A hospital cart should be able to work with both standard and custom hardware, or at the very least, it should be a matter of ordering a custom part from the manufacturer. Most healthcare computer manufacturers pigeonhole you into choosing what is best for them, without giving you the freedom to integrate whatever you actually need to use.
#4 – Interoperability
The discussion here is over a platform independent software package that preferably runs on the web with a variety of browsers, but it’s easy to see how you would also want a mobile computing cart that supports a wide variety of devices, whether a laptop, desktop, netbook, tablet, or even a thin client.
#3 – Mobility
This ties in tightly with the interoperability statement for the author, but relates more directly to physical size for medical laptop carts. A larger, bulkier cart is always harder to move – it’s a law of physics – but we at JACO are able to use different materials and designs to achieve a smaller, stronger platform that not only lasts longer, but is easier to move and maneuver. On top of that, we use top-quality casters; small, low profile bases that are designed to fit in small rooms; and we have our TRAC option, which uses similar technology as that used in moving hospital beds to improve turning and steering.
#2 – Outside Provider Access to Records and #1 – Patient Access to Records
This is where the similarities in the comparison to mobile carts falls short. However, I think that one of the important aspects in providing EHR software access to those outside the medical office is making it simple to use and providing a clean interface that people can understand and build upon. Medical carts should also have a clean look, and a simple, stress free design that helps people do their job better and easier.
Via: Disrupt Medicine
