Region Västra Götaland
The region of Västra Götaland (VGR, the Gothenburg region) was the first in Sweden to adopt the Medanets app for nursing staff, at healthcare facilities such as Sahlgrenska University Hospital.
The Medanets Observation values feature has helped nursing professionals working in Västra Götaland take a smarter approach to their work. Patients’ values are documented directly with a smartphone, reducing time spent documenting them and providing nursing staff with more time to spend with patients.
When the mobile solution was adopted on the wards in 2017, both patients and employees saw an improvement in care and patient safety, as well as reduced costs. As of 2023, around 140 wards across all hospitals in the area are using the mobile solution, with over a million documentations made each month.
More time with patients
During the first few months following the introduction of the solution in Västra Götaland, erroneous documentations fell by 75% and an average of 70 hours per month per ward were released from administrative to other tasks. Instead of duplicating the documentation of information, this time could be spent with the patients.
The mobile solution allows for almost real-time updating of information in the Electronic Health Record, ensuring that right care decisions can be made at the right time. Research has shown that if health records are updated manually, the delay between taking measurements and documentation is on average 25 minutes, and sometimes longer.
Collaboration to improve quality
The mobile nursing solution provided for Region Västra Götaland was created by a EHR supplier Cerner (now Cerner Oracle), in collaboration with the Oulu-based Medanets. Cerner Oracle and Medanets worked together to create a product that makes nurses’ day-to-day work easier and improves patient safety.
“It’s amazingly exciting that we’ve found an innovative solution that makes a difference to healthcare.”
Ann-Sofie Ardfelt, IT Department Head for Västra Götaland’s healthcare district
A key request from nursing professionals was the ability to document information from the patient’s bedside, so that they could focus on the patient rather than working on a computer.
Implementation of the mobile solution, which runs on smartphones, has saved valuable time that can then be spent looking after patients. According to calculations carried out by Västra Götaland, around 10,000 hours are freed up for patient care every month.