The Detroit News reports about Detroit Medical Center’s efforts to bring information technology directly to the patient’s bedside:
Health systems nationwide are wiring up their wards, realizing that patients increasingly expect the same world-at-their-fingertips feel they get at home from their hospital.
There’s also an efficiency factor. With systems like the one at Huron Valley, doctors can have immediate bedside access to patient information.
Also, nurses save time because they don’t have to go over as much information with patients. The time is crucial as hospitals struggle with physician and nurse shortages.
With the technology, doctors no longer have to rush between hospital rooms, labs and the radiology department because they can call up patient information on the screens.
Nurse Kim Rinkinen says she’s been able to cut in half the time she spends talking to patients before they’re discharged. And she’s still available to answer questions, she said, along with routinely talking to new parents during their stay.
But Rinkinen, who works in Huron Valley’s Harris Birthing Center, saves time because much of what patients learn comes through the monitors in the form of checklists and digital videos that patients can start and stop themselves.
Nurses determine what information a patient needs and set the programming at a central nurse’s station. They’re then able to track what a patient has read through and watched on the monitors.
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