Medanets’ Mobile Solutions Support Homecare Services – Patients of Kaarina At-home Hospital Will Benefit from Real-time Documentation
Knowledge work, including documentation, takes up a large proportion of nursing time and other resources also in at-home hospital care. However, in this procedure-intensive and demanding work, it is essential that nurses can focus on providing care and observing the condition of patients. [1] Fortunately, solutions that reduce the extra load of knowledge work are available to support homecare services.
Kaarina At-home Hospital Relies on Medanets
The Kaarina at-home hospital in south-west Finland offers short-term hospital-level care in the patient’s home, retirement homes or the organisation’s own premises, as an alternative to inpatient care at a hospital [2]. Medanets’ mobile solutions were introduced in at-home hospital nursing last spring.
We received feedback from nursing professionals themselves that the application would be necessary in the at-home hospital setting as well. They had seen the benefits of the mobile solution in inpatient care at hospitals. The needs are very similar in at-home hospital care.
Niina Lukkarla, IT specialist, City of Kaarina healthcare services
The care offered in the at-home hospital is very similar to care provided on the wards of Kaarina healthcare centre hospital. Both units use the same features of the Medanets mobile app: observation values and Early Warning Score. The only difference is that smartphones used in at-home hospital care need to be connected to a secure mobile data network. The network connection is provided by the partnering mobile service provider.
In Kaarina, approximately 500 at-home hospital care visits are made each month. The nurses share three mobile devices. In the summer, the number of visits is smaller; however, according to user reports, the application has been in active use. The app supports nursing duties and improves patient safety through real-time documentation.
Medanets has been welcomed by our at-home hospital care team. What I really value is that I can access, for example, the patient’s previous blood pressure readings while I’m with them, which means I can make comparisons and spot any changes immediately. Medanets also speeds up the documentation process.
nurse, Kaarina at-home hospital
Patients benefit from real-time documentation particularly if their condition is getting worse. Up-to-date data is really valuable at that point [1]. Another tool supporting the observation of a patient’s condition is the Early Warning Score (EWS) feature. It automatically calculates the patient’s EWS score based on the values entered in the application. It also generates summary reports and predictive trends based on previous EWS scores and observation values. Recommendations adjusted according to the patient’s EWS score support decision making and provide guidance for the user.
SOURCES:
[1] Korkiakoski, Jonna (2019). Mobiilisovellus kotisairaalaan: Potilastietojen käsittelyä koskevat ohjeet ja vaatimukset. Thesis. http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2019112522187
[2] https://kaarina.fi/fi/sosiaali-ja-terveyspalvelut/terveyspalvelut/kotisairaala
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