The medical world faces continually changing demands that require active responses to allow them to provide the highest level of patient care. As medical professionals learn more about patient conditions, deal with newly-discovered illnesses, and face regulatory changes that can affect their systems and procedures, it’s vital to take advantage of technological developments.
Medical facilities need to be flexible and adapt quickly to the challenges they face daily. Mobile carts support the rising trend of versatile healthcare environments, enabling physicians, nurses, and other medical colleagues to perform their duties more efficiently and to achieve improved patient outcomes.
As there are many ways a mobile cart can assist medical staff in achieving their goals, it’s essential to consider how the unit may help your employees to maximize their results.
Help to Reduce Costs
Improved outcomes are possible when medical facilities can reduce unnecessary costs, as the medical facility can spend the saved money to benefit their staff and their patients. Although difficult to quantify, physicians and nurses who spend time moving from location to location, are potentially costing money by not being with their patients.
Common reasons for employees to be in transit rather than at the point of care, are needing to obtain medication from a pharmacy, check patient files at centrally located computer banks, or collecting medical devices from storerooms.
However, if a medical professional has a mobile cart at their disposal, they can load their unit with all the medical equipment they anticipate they may use on the ward, removing the need to return to storerooms to collect essential devices.
As mobile carts come complete with secure, locked drawers, it is safe to store medicines that patients, visitors, and other hospital attendees can not access. These features can significantly reduce the time employees spend away from their patients, costing the facility money through no fault of their own.
Improve Patient Confidentiality
As your staff strive to quicken response times and provide an improved service to patients, small errors can occur. However, one area where facilities can not afford mistakes to happen is patient confidentiality. HIPAA regulations are strict, and hospitals have a duty of care to ensure patient files remain confidential.
It is no longer acceptable to leave medical records on a file at the end of a bed, and it is also poor practice for a physician to handwrite notes, which a colleague has to add to a computer file at the end of the day. Due to the open plan of hospitals, too many unauthorized people could view sensitive patient information.
Mobile medical carts allow medical staff to add electronic medical records to a password-protected file at the patient’s bedside, eliminating the need for a paper file. Also, an often overlooked aspect of patient confidentiality is that patients have a right to view any information that the hospital holds on their record.
By bringing a mobile laptop cart to their bedside, you can allow patients to view their medical information, without a chain of several people locating, typing, and bringing the file to the patient.
Improve Patient Interactions
One of the most crucial aspects of patient care is the interaction between the patient and their care team. By talking to a patient in a way they can understand, helping them to learn about their condition, and potential treatment options, a physician can make the patient feel included in their care plan, and build up a feeling of mutual trust.
Mobile medical carts allow a physician to bring all the relevant devices and information directly to the point of care. They can monitor vital signs to provide the patient with a real-time update on essential health measurements, and both parties can also view the patient’s medical file together.
Using the height-adjustment feature, it is possible to lower the laptop to the height of the patient’s bedside, so both parties can see the LCD screen. Should information be complex, the physician can use the internet-enabled computer to bring up images and diagrams that may make the material easier to understand in layman’s terms.
Final Words
Versatility is crucial in today’s medical world. Medical staff can improve interactions with patients to boost patient outcomes, but they also need to balance this with ensuring patient confidentiality does not suffer.
Unfortunately, it is a reality that the costs a facility incurs can directly impact on the experience of their staff and their patients, and hospitals need to reduce costs wherever they can. By using mobile medical carts, facilities can reduce the amount of time staff spend apart from their patients, and maximize the subsequent benefits in an efficient manner.
At Scott-Clark Medical, we’ve been leading the mobile medical cart industry for many years. Contact us on 512-756-7300 for a free consultation and quote for your mobile cart solution.