Towards healthcare ecosystem together with EHR vendors and best-of-breed solutions

If a healthcare organisation chooses to improve nursing documentation and workflows with a mobile solution, the mobile solution needs to be integrated into their electronic health record (EHR). Healthcare professionals, whose job is to take care of patient’s lives, need best-of-breed solutions that truly support their work.  

Applications that are optimised for a specific purpose are particularly needed in cases where professionals are involved in challenges related to human health -– even life and death. It’s always a good idea to choose a solution that best support a particular workflow. Several apps can be brought into one using light integrations or links to provide a seamless user experience. At its best, a mobile app can support a given workflow so well that it operates almost without being noticed.  

Smooth user experience is key – and integrations are key to the smooth experience 

When talking about nursing apps, a couple of things are of utmost importance for a smooth user experience. First, the nursing app must be optimised for nursing processes and the related documentation. Second, when doing nursing documentation, it is vital that the nurse can see the patient’s historical data and compare it with the newest results. Otherwise, it is impossible to know in which direction the patient’s condition is going.  

Nurses also benefit from an app that can suggest what to do next, and then guide them through the right workflows, such as filling in certain clinical forms and assessments, and taking the measures that are needed based on the assessments’ results. The needed workflows are manifold, but one thing is in common: all these workflows need to be integrated on mobile and in the EHR. If the organisation uses more than one core EHR or similar systems, the mobile solution must be integrated with all of these. Otherwise, the nurse’s workflows are broken. The inefficiency compromises the quality and safety of care.  

This is particularly critical with medication-related processes, which are not safe enough without integrations. Working integrations are also the prerequisite for the closed loop medication process. From a technical point of view, it does not matter how the integrations are done: they can be done directly or based on some platform, like the Open EHR platform. 

Does the network connection support or hinder your UX? 

Healthcare professionals, who are moving a lot during their working day, often face a common problem: the network is not working properly. Even the newest hospital buildings tend to have corners with poor network connection, and suddenly, the apps won’t work. However, these professionals do not have time to wait for better connections. How to solve the problem? Not by changing back to old ways of documenting with pen and paper. Instead, these professionals need mobile solutions which work smoothly, regardless of the quality of the network connection. Such solutions do exist. It is noteworthy that a mobile solution that supports workflows like medication administration or Early Warning Score with offline capability, must fulfil the requirements of the EU’s Medical Device Regulation (MDR). This is mandatory. 

Bridge the gap between systems with neutral mobile solutions  

The reason we use technology is that we want to streamline and improve existing work processes. However, it sometimes feels that technology only makes them clumsier. In their thesis, Mojord and Blixencrone¹ note that immature technology brings a number of challenges with it. Many challenges also result from the lack of integration between technologies. Developing a new, all-encompassing system is complex and takes a lot of time. Therefore, a good option is to look into solutions that make use of API integrations. Although in some cases such a system might be more of a temporary solution, it frees up the healthcare professional’s time so that they can use it for value-creating activities instead of manually moving information between systems.¹ 

Neutral mobile solutions, like the Medanets app, complement and bridge the gaps between EHRs and other systems. We truly believe in a health eco-system in which partners come together to solve healthcare challenges. It’s about creating value together, for better healthcare in the future. 

Read also:  

Sources: 

1. Mojord & Blinxencrone (2022): Null Feil. Lukket legemiddelsloyfe. Et bachelor-prosjekt av Elise E. Mojord & Josefine K. Blixencrone.  

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