Many clinicians spend a significant amount of time in the EHR, as it’s a critical tool for coordinating patient care. Providers and other clinical colleagues maintain patient charts and document detailed notes. These records create a complete view of each patient’s history, condition, and care plan.
However, clinicians often access EHRs through desktop or laptop computers. These devices can limit mobility as staff move between rooms and units. Wider smartphone use gives healthcare organizations another option. It can extend essential EHR capabilities to the point of care and increase the value of existing systems.
Scaling the EHR’s utility to smartphones allows users to move more efficiently through the hospital, quickly make changes to the patient’s care plan, instantly contact care team members and reduce the physical and cognitive burden on clinicians, which can mitigate burnout and fatigue. In particular, clinical smartphone applications with a collaborative focus are the most impactful when it comes to extending the EHR. In this blog, we will review the optimal qualities of clinical mobile platforms in order to make the most of your organization’s EHR investment.
Mobilize the Electronic Health Record
There are plenty of clinical communication applications in the healthcare technology market, but the key to extending your EHR is leveraging a communication solution that prioritizes interoperability and key integrations. Beyond other important capabilities, such as sending nurse call alerts and critical lab values to clinicians’ smartphones, EHR integrations with mobile devices like smartphones can expand the reach of your organization’s infrastructure.
Many EHR integrations function by providing third-party vendor access to patient data via HL7, allowing access to the patient record. The vendor will work with the EHR to facilitate a connection that transmits desired information from one system to another. Depending on the purpose of the integration, this data can include basic patient details (name, bed number, vitals), care team assignments, lab values and more.
Fostering Collaboration Within the EHR
In practice, integrating your organization’s EHR with your clinical communication system serves to promote care team collaboration by making dynamic data more accessible to users. At Mobile Heartbeat, we believe that critical information should be available to care team members in real-time, and we have specific integrations to support and enable that vision.
For instance, our Dynamic Care Team capability pulls real-time care team information so that clinicians never have to wonder who else is caring for a particular patient. The entire up-to-date team is displayed under the appropriate patient—even including specialists and clinicians from ancillary departments. We pull this data from the EHR, so as staff assignments are indicated within the EHR, they are reflected instantly under Dynamic Care Team.
Similarly, any critical lab values that are displayed in the EHR can be pulled by MH-CURE and sent as an alert to the patient’s care team.
Innovating Interoperability
At the forefront of this integration technology is an opportunity to make care team collaboration easier for clinicians. The ability to launch communication capabilities, such as calling, from directly within the EHR enhances care coordination by connecting clinicians quicker and easier than ever. This integration, on the user end, is totally seamless to make the calling process as smooth and simple as possible.
Every healthcare organization has unique workflows, therefore healthcare organizations need a flexible collaborative platform that can be tailored to accommodate and support specific operations across different teams, units and facilities. Our InterApp Launch Points® API offers completely customizable links between the platform and other mission-critical tools, including the EHR, so that clinicians can move seamlessly between applications.
Configuration Support and Solutions
Each healthcare organization has a different infrastructure. Therefore, integration settings should match the facility’s environment and goals. Our solutions engineers and support specialists have streamlined the setup process. This reduces the burden on hospital IT teams.
After selecting the integrations you need, our engineers review your infrastructure and gather relevant details. They then build each integration around your organization’s requirements. This hands-on service helps ensure reliable performance from the start.
The EHR remains central to hospital operations. Purpose-built EHR integrations can improve interoperability, support patient care, and strengthen team collaboration. With the right technology and expert support, organizations can extend the value of their existing EHR infrastructure.
For more information on high-impact integrations with mission-critical tools, contact one of our clinical mobility specialists.
