Mobile Computing

I'm interested in learning more about mobile computing in the home care environment. I sent out a request for info on PDA's but I realize I should broaden the scope to include any mobile device - laptop, tablet, etc. If you are familiar with technology currently in use or in development for home health nurses to use in the field, I would be interested in hearing from you.

We use laptops at our agency. We have to transfer the information first and the intention of the laptop is for the nurses/therapists to use the computer in the patient's home. Some patients don't like it though. Then I go home and transfer (via the phone line) so that the agency has all the information/charting. It works out very well.

There are a number of different software vendors that offer "point of care" software that will run on PDA's tablets, laptops.

Working for one of these vendors, I do a presentation about the various uses of mobile computers. When looking at this technology, the first question you should ask yourself is PDA or Laptop/Tablet. Both have their pros and cons. The big difference is the ease of input of text information and the size of the screen.

The next question is how do you want to take the information from the mobile device and transfer it to your agency. In the past, this meant bringing the device into the agency during normal working hours and "synching" or connecting directly to your network. Now with advances in cellular technology, as well as "hotspots" this transfer can be done from the field, keeping your staff in the field.

After you answer these two basic questions, you can then start looking at which system suits you better.

hope that gives you a start of the thought process. Please let me know if you need more information.

I've worked for two software vendors and as a Systems Analyst at a VNA and have been active in many User Groups discussions regarding this. From my experience, a lot of the nurses preferred the larger screen of a laptop/tablet to a PDA. While the PDA size was by far more preferrable, when you start documenting the visit notes, especially the OASIS timepoints, the larger screen was more helpful. Even on a good size laptop screen, there are 2-3 OASIS questions that still don't fit on one screen.

We trialed the Fujitsu B and P series. I called them the B!tch and the little P!ssers, but that can not only tell you how we felt about them but also their size. With the software we were using there, the P [lighter but smaller] were difficult to use. The software required clicking on appropriate boxes, but the accuracy was not always easy to achieve. You want to hurry up and get that information documented, but you had to pay very close attention to whether your tap landed in the exact correct spot, because as you know, if it didn't, then your answer was documented incorrectly.

We found that we liked the Panasonic Toughbook T2s, because they had a great screen size, but also because they felt light. They were approximately the same weight, but they felt much lighter. When you're already lugging around a nursing bag, you don't want a heavy device to add to the load. You also need to be aware of which one you pick based on screen resolution. The T2s had the nice bright screen, which was helpful in daylight hours.

There are a couple of software vendors out there that sell programs, but I think the majority of them use laptops and not PDAs. At least from what I have observed. At a recent IT Analyst meeting, we had this same discussion, and the entire room [represented by about 10 agencies] all agreed that their nursing staff hated PDAs and would rather lug around a larger device [laptop or tablet] than deal with the small screen size.

Also, of the software packages I'm familiar with, a user needs either a phone line or a wireless connection to "synchronize" or "import/export" their data. The expectation is generally morning and night to complete this. Most agencies will let their staff do it from home, but there are a few that ask their staff to come into the office for this. That's pretty rare from what I've seen though.

I hope that helps. ;-)