The potential benefits of electronic health records (EHR) are far from a new idea. Their promise is both welcome and familiar to administrators and practitioners alike: a healthcare system where patient care information is freed from a paperwork prison so that caregiver productivity is improved and medical errors are greatly reduced or even eliminated. But that promise remained elusive without a broadband investment to support it. Though technologically feasible since the advent of the Internet, there was no solid fiscal incentive to invest in the data pipeline needed to realize it in real healthcare settings until the FDA began mandating the use of barcodes on pharmaceuticals in 2005. Though healthcare IT departments have been hard at work on their “barcode strategy” since then, many were slow to respond out of understandable concern that any investment would entail too much expense and risk, at too high a cost, with too slow a deployment.
The goal must be broader than just the widespread adoption of EHRs. Forward-looking planners realize this is about transforming an industry, not reducing paperwork. It’s about using broadband connectivity to deliver patient care with newfound agility across the entire continuum of care. It’s about getting connectivity with enough capacity to manage all the data transfer needs throughout an organization today, with room to expand. With that goal in mind, IT managers in healthcare need to weigh broader concerns than EHR file formats and content conversion. They need to be weighing the specific drivers for broadband solutions in their organization to achieve reliable interoperability factors like:
- number and physical location of facilities to be connected
- kind of data to be “pushed through the pipe. (i.e. data, voice, video, images, all of the above)
- reliability, integrity and security requirements of the data supplied to a facility
- authentication and credentialing of those accessing the data to ensure a secure environment that meets HIPAA regulations
Whatever the need or profile, today’s wireless solutions are uniquely suited to help healthcare organizations of any size realize the full potential of what broadband can offer them, their employees and their patients. Yet, paradoxically, the common misperception that wireless broadband solutions are more expensive, less secure, and too difficult to maintain means that the very organizations that could benefit from them might question them as a viable solution. Many organizations in rural or hard-to-reach areas, for instance, may assume that wireless broadband is the wrong fit for them, when in reality those challenges make them the perfect candidate.
The bottom line is that wireless broadband delivers real healthcare systems improvement. Real-time access to reliable patient data saves staff time and makes for greater productivity while reducing the potential for medical errors. Wireless networks can be implemented more quickly and easily – delivering a time and cost advantage in areas where laying down cable is cost-prohibitive. Moreover because it owns the network, the hospital IT department is in control of its own infrastructure, never feeling like it’s at the mercy of a carrier or service provider. It is secure and can give administration visibility into the network, right down to automatic HIPAA compliance auditing.
Healthcare organizations need no longer limit their goals to reactive ones, prioritizing those technology investments which merely fill gaps in their existing systems. Instead, they can set goals according to the kind of service they plan to deliver in the future by investing in scalable technology available today that can help them meet their goals of providing access to electronic patient records anywhere in a reliable and secure manner. Wireless broadband offers clear cost and implementation advantages over other solutions in healthcare settings. Is your organization realizing the benefits of wireless broadband yet?
Vivian Funkhouser has worked in healthcare marketing and sales globally for more than 20 years. At Motorola, Vivian serves as the global business development principal for health care solutions, covering everything from wireless infrastructure equipment to devices. Prior to joining Motorola, Vivian worked for McKesson as marketing project manager for their bedside scanning solution.
To learn more about Motorola's Healthcare solutions, visit www.motorola.com/healthcare
