Central Ostrobothnia wellbeing services county, Finland, expands the use of the Medanets solution

The Central Ostrobothnia wellbeing services county has expanded its use of the Medanets solution to cover children’s emergency department and the children’s ward, the wards of the Kannus and Tunkkari health centres as well as hospital at home services. In addition, they acquired the Admin UI reporting tool for the entire area. Medanets was already in use at several departments of the central hospital.

The Medanets Observation values feature was adopted by all of the above units. The children’s department also adopted Monitored patients. The hospital at home deployed the solution in September–October 2022, the other units followed in November.

Medanets makes documentation smoother in hospital at home care

The at-home hospital in the city of Kokkola has 10 permanent employees, each with access to a smartphone equipped with the Medanets app. There are also devices for substitutes, and having a sufficient number of devices available was crucial for a successful deployment of the system. Overall, the deployment process went smoothly, according to service supervisor Maija Luoto. The minor initial technical hiccups were quickly solved.

On average, the at-home hospital visits approximately 50–60 patients 450–500 times a month. Deployment of the Medanets app has made it faster to document the patients’ vital signs. “Previously, the values were written down on paper at the patient’s home and only entered into the EHR system at the office at the end of the day, because we did not feel that carrying a laptop made working easier. We did give it a try, but experienced issues with data connections and multiple logins. Now, thanks to Medanets, we can document values practically in real time, which makes the process both smoother and more reliable,” says Luoto.

Employees have also been pleased with the application. “Using a smartphone app is the future. No one has had a bad word to say about it. Our goal is to get rid of paper altogether,” says Luoto.

In addition to Medanets Observation values, the at-home hospital also acquired the Early Warning Score feature. However, the deployment follows later on. Previously, the at-home hospital was not using NEWS scoring in any way, shape or form, so the whole process is entirely new and the discussions with the doctor of the at-home hospital about the best way to implement the process are still ongoing.

Instant positive feedback from the employees of the children’s ward

Children’s emergency department and the children’s ward also hoped that Medanets would make nursing documentation easier and reduce the number of paper notes. “Our hope is that Medanets will cut the time spent on documentation and increase the time spent with patients,” says Kaisa Vapola, responsible head nurse and area manager.

Using the Medanets app is yet to become a fully established way of working, although at times the app is used a lot already. “In terms of Medanets, the deployment process and training went well. The feedback from our employees regarding the app was instantly positive,” says Vapola.

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