Nordlandssykehuset
Introducing a mobile app to support nursing care has improved patient safety, experience and efficiency at hospitals belonging to the Nordland hospital trust (Nordlandssykehuset). The mobile solution has been implemented in all the trust’s hospitals in Bodo, Vesterålen and Lofoten, also in the Bodo psychiatric hospital. The solution is provided to them together by Medanets and their EHR system supplier DIPS. Nordlandssykehuset is Medanets’ first customer in Norway. The features adopted are Medanets Observation values, Early Warning Score (EWS), Clinical forms, Checklists and Admin UI.
On the video made by Nordlandssykehuset, nurse Anette Albriktsen tells how the mobile app has improved her experience of providing care:
Smoother and quicker nursing workflows in all situations
Nordlandssykehuset, a hospital trust located in the northern part of Norway, had been planning the implementation of the mobile app before the COVID-19 pandemic, but early on in the pandemic, in March 2020, Medanets received an urgent order: implementation of the Medanets app had been deemed potentially beneficial in the fight against COVID-19, and for this reason, they wanted to have the app in place and available to nurses as soon as possible. After two weeks of intensive and multidisciplinary cooperation, the app was deployed for the trust completely remotely. This also helped mitigate the risk of avoidable infections.
At the trust’s hospitals, the value the app offers can also be seen outside of the COVID-19 context. The Medanets app ensures information about patients’ condition, such as observation values, is available in nearly real time to the whole care team. Previously, the delay between taking measurements and them being documented was significant, as it required manual steps. From the trust’s perspective, eliminating this paper-based work was one of the key reasons for adopting the mobile nursing solutions.
EWS provides invaluable help particularly in critical situations
Based on the comments of the hospital trust’s nurses, the key value of the mobile solution is that it enables a smoother and quicker workflow in all situations. It also makes it possible for doctors and other medical staff to immediately see the information documented on the mobile device in the EHR. In critical situations, the Early Warning Score (EWS) feature is seen as helpful.
The EWS feature allows us to get a good overview of a patient’s vital signs, which can be the difference between life and death in an emergency. It also has a significant impact on the choice of treatment method.
Nurse, Nordlandssykehuset
More harmonised and smoother care practices using Checklists
At Nordlandssykehuset, checklists are a tool for the care of individual patients. Checklists ensure nurses do not have to rely on their memories for various processes and include key information to be recorded in the Electronic Health Record. There are around 100 different checklists in use, including a checklist for admitting patients in and a checklist of nursing actions to be carried out prior to surgery.
Before we adopted the Medanets app, all the lists had to be filled in by hand and stored in paper format in the patient’s file. Only after the patient was discharged were the paper forms scanned into the Electronic Health Record.
Nina Nedregård Jensen, Clinical ICT Department Manager, Nordlandssykehuset
Nowadays, the information from the completed checklists goes through Medanets and into the EHR immediately. From the nurses’ perspective, the key benefit of the mobile app, as well as the Checklists feature, is the time saved.
Admin UI data confirms positive feedback
According to Clinical ICT Department Manager Nina Nedregård Jensen, the change process in the organisation has progressed well. Despite minor hiccups, which are unavoidable in any organisational changes, it is clear that the mobile solution is here to stay.
We can’t imagine stopping to use the app. That would mean taking something really valuable away from the nurses, something that helps them so much.
Nina Nedregård Jensen, Clinical ICT Department Manager, Nordlandssykehuset
The data available also backs up this positive feedback. Nordlandssykehuset has been using the Medanets Admin UI administration and reporting tool, which shows that the number of documentations made in the mobile app is constantly growing. The adoption of Medanets at the trust has also been assessed through scientific research, which has shown that the implementation process has gone exceptionally well. A survey has also been carried out at the trust among Medanets app users.
The smooth cooperation between the parties will continue to develop the app and its use further.
Odotamme innolla seuraavia päivityksiä ja työskentelyn jatkumista sekä Medanetsin että DIPS:n kanssa. Haluamme kehittyä jatkuvasti ja nautimme hedelmällisestä yhteistyöstä.
We are looking forward to the next updates and working further together with Medanets and DIPS to enable continuous improvement. We enjoy the fruitful cooperation.