The time has come to abandon our reliance on paper patient records. There has been a recent scandal in the headlines that brings this sentiment to the fore; NHS England realised that up to 500,000 medical documents had been mistakenly put into storage – endangering patients and highlighting the needless and potentially disastrous consequences of relying on manual systems and paper records. To make matters worse it has emerged that Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt was aware but was advised to keep the information private.
How Mobile Working Can Improve Access to Patient Information
Replacing paper records with a flexible mobile working solution, which provides immediate access to patient records anytime, anywhere, is the future of the provision of care. Mobile workforce management, saves time, costs and reduces our environmental footprint as we stop insisting on everything being recorded on that valuable commodity – paper.
The NHS England error saw important medical information, including cancer reports, failing to be sent to GPs or added to patients’ records, affecting 2,500 patients. The current investigation hasn’t highlighted any problems but this can only be seen as being a lucky escape.
Mobility for the Workforce and Interoperability
By implementing a mobile workforce management solution, drastic change will take place within the system, allowing staff the security and ability to confidently complete their daily roles to a high standard. Multiple agencies will have access to these records, allowing them to make more informed decisions and overall increasing the level of care for patients.
Totalmobile’s mobile working technology is a unique and intuitive application that allows, with just a few taps, a mobile worker to complete their daily tasks right at the point of service delivery. It allows users to complete forms, capture signatures, all in a simple and user friendly way.
Increased efficiency is only one benefit of moving to a mobile workforce management platform, the additional security for patients and doctors is a huge consideration and is achieved through the sharing of information. Losing patient records will become a thing of the past and the headlines will see a change of direction rather than the usual doom and gloom – like this one from 2014, “2,000 NIH patients’ records are lost everyday…”, according to the Daily Mail. These aren’t digital records, instead these are records accidentally sold on eBay, dumped in landfill sites or even dropped in the street!
With a connected workforce, clinicians and community care workers would no longer have to carry huge piles of records in their cars or to and from their homes, instead everything would be there at their finger tips. The opportunity to embrace new ways of working and to improve access to patient records is there for those ready to embrace digital transformation.
