Mobile Computer Cart
Mobile medical carts or Mobile computer Cart are an increasingly familiar sight in hospitals and other clinical settings. As clinical facilities strive to improve patient care, increase profitability, and raise patient satisfaction levels, technology plays an essential role in medical care.
Medical professionals are highly-trained, and facilities invest vast amounts of money in recruitment and ongoing professional development to ensure they perform at their best. However, physicians and nurses require the latest technology to provide the highest patient care standards, and mobile medical carts play an important role in healthcare outcomes.
Whether you need to improve efficiency, patient safety, emergency response times, or a better way to store data, a mobile computing cart could be the right choice for you.
Increase Face Time with Patients
Physicians value their time with patients, giving them more time to evaluate their condition, discuss their options, and move forward with a treatment plan. Patients also appreciate the ability to chat with their practitioners at their bedside, making decisions together and feeling they are a part of the decision-making process.
Hospitals are fast-paced environments, so it takes considerable organization to ensure a physician can maximize their time for meaningful patient interaction. Outdated processes such as keeping records on a central bank of computers, requiring the physician to retrieve patient notes from that area, can waste valuable time.
Physicians can move a mobile computer cart around the ward on rolling casters and use the laptop to access patient notes at the point of care. Not only does this save time, but the medical professional can use the bright LED screen to show the patient information about their condition. Patients value open and honest conversations with their care team, and reading over notes together and seeing the data recorded in their file, can significantly improve the patient-physician relationship.
Medical professionals can even raise and lower the laptop’s height on the mobile workstation so the patient can view the screen while they are in bed, providing extra comfort for those with mobility issues.
Improve Patient Care
A delay in starting a patient on a treatment plan could be the difference between a positive and a negative outcome. If a physician is using a mobile medical cart, lab results are visible as soon as the lab adds them to the central system. This ability to see new information in real-time enables the professional to start, or adjust, a treatment plan, dramatically altering the potential patient outcome.
These immediate updates are also a crucial safety feature. Should a physician prescribe medicine to a patient, or ask for a change in medication, this information is visible to their colleagues, reducing the risk of overmedication.
Securely Store Pharmaceuticals
Many medical facilities have a central pharmacy to store medications. Physicians and nurses visit this location each time they need to fill a prescription, but this is a time-consuming practice.
Mobile computer carts come with standard lock and key drawers, or for added security, biometric locking systems with proximity scanners. Biometric locking systems securely fasten the drawers and only grant access to authorized personnel who carry specially-encoded key cards, detected by the proximity scanners.
The intelligent systems record which staff member opened the drawer, which medication they removed, the patient in receipt of the drug, and the transaction’s date and time. These are secure records that immediately show on the central computer system, ensuring each professional who attends that patient is aware of the medication they require.
These records are crucial for auditing purposes and protect your staff from accusations of impropriety. The data also shows your team has acted professionally, prescribing medication per the needs of their patient. This feature can be particularly important when treating patients with cognitive conditions, as they may not remember receiving medication from their physician.
Improve Emergency Response Times
There can be an emergency in any department in a clinical setting, and your staff must have the tools at their disposal to treat their patient. Physicians can place a mobile crash cart with a laptop at the room entrance in a cardiac ward.
If a patient is experiencing a cardiac arrest, they can quickly move to the patient’s bedside, confident the laptop contains the relevant patient data, and their essential equipment is on the cart.
Because wards have differing needs, computer carts with storage drawers are highly-versatile, and you can add many accessories to ensure they are the right choice for each department. You can also add general-purpose equipment that is useful to several different nearby wards.
Improve Infection Control Standards
Infection control procedures form a crucial part of health and safety procedures in every medical facility. Medical professionals need to follow thorough protocols before and after attending with every patient to ensure they do not spread infection around the ward.
Mobile medical carts have sterile and secure biohazard containers for storing hazardous materials after use and hygienic sprays and wipes for disinfecting equipment. Before visiting a patient at the point of care, a medical professional can clean their mobile cart with disinfectant wipes, retrieve sterile gloves, gowns, and aprons from a drawer, and then treat this patient.
Before they see the next person, the professional can place their scrubs and any wipes and sharps in a biohazard container. These procedures can significantly reduce the risk of infection transference within a clinical setting.
Increase in Staff Satisfaction
Medical professionals prefer to keep busy, and mobile medical carts enable them to spend more time with their patients because they have all the necessary information and equipment at their fingertips. Medics are usually on their feet, so choosing to sit, stand, or lean on the laptop computer when speaking with a patient can give their back a much-need rest.
Even though the LED screens are large, users don’t have to strain their eyes, the CPU stand is relatively light, allowing medics to move their cart with minimal effort. The compact design of the mobile unit means it doesn’t take up unnecessary space during storage. If preferred, it’s possible to lift a computer screen off the unit and use a stand, desk, or another safe area to store the screen until the next use.
You can even attach the screen to a floor stand in an office for a presentation or training and then transfer it back to your mobile cart before you head out on your rounds.
Extended Battery Life
A mobile computer cart is only useful when working on the ward, so battery life is crucial. At Scott-Clark Medical, we use Flexible Mobile Power Cart Technology (FMCPT) to power our mobile computer carts. With our hot-swap battery system, a cart can stay on a ward indefinitely.
Mobile computer carts that use standard lithium-ion batteries may only run for 2-3 hours before needing a recharge. This interruption is detrimental to staff workflow, and the cart may be out of use for several hours during recharging. These older batteries also have a lifespan of approximately 12 months before you need to replace them.
A Scott-Clark Medical iron-phosphate lithium-ion battery can power a mobile cart for between 6-10 hours and has an average lifespan of 5 years. For your peace of mind, all Scott-Clark Medical batteries also come with a 5-year warranty. While this is cost-effective, it is also more environmentally-friendly and helps you reduce your carbon footprint.
Scott-Clark Medical’s innovative hot-swap battery system allows medical staff to change a low on charge battery for a fresh battery without the need for IT support. There is at least one charging station on each cart, so while one battery is powering the cart, another is charging. Because one completely charged battery can provide power for 6-10 hours, and the charge time is only 2½ hours, the cart is available for use 24/7.
Contact Scott-Clark Medical For Mobile Computer Carts With Storage
Scott-Clark Medical has been providing mobile computer carts to medical professionals for decades. Whether you require new mobile carts or want to retrofit your existing units, our team can find the right solution for you.
Should you have further questions about how a mobile medical cart can benefit your facility, contact our team at (512) 756-7300.