Clinical mobility is mission critical to the future of healthcare
The fast-changing picture of worldwide healthcare is daunting. Costs keep rising, with no apparent end in sight. The challenges facing healthcare are causing incredible stress to all involved in this marketplace, including institutions and the communities in which they exist, their staffs, and their patients. Currently available resources and methods may not be sufficient to deal with these challenges. An important part of the solution is improved technology that can stop the bleeding, before global healthcare suffers even further.
In Zebra’s 2022 Hospital Vision Study*, four compelling shifts were identified as happening in acute-care hospitals: the growing use of mobile devices, the delivery of meaningful improvements, the emergence of tech-savvy patients, and transformative technology trends.
One crucial technology that can be used to stem the tide of potentially critical problems in healthcare is clinical mobility—defined by Zebra as “the use of mobile devices (such as handheld mobile computers, tablets, and mobile printers) by… healthcare professionals at the point-of-care.*” According to the Zebra study, the reasons to invest in clinical mobility are to: improve patient outcomes, increase staff efficiency, reduce the cost of patient care, comply with new laws and regulations, and optimize payer reimbursement (in US only)*.
As healthcare continues to evolve at an ever-quickening pace, it’s now more essential than ever to understand the workers who are using clinical-mobility devices (think nurses), and the people they serve (think patients), and what they both need. And, don’t forget to consider the IT teams responsible for keeping these systems running smoothly, efficiently, and securely. Protecting patients’ private information is of utmost importance.
The implementation of mobile-device policies will greatly increase by 2022*. In 2017, 65% of IT executives reported having such a policy; in 2022, 98% say they plan to have a policy in place. That equates to a huge opportunity for providers of clinical mobility to think about how they can deliver what the healthcare industry so desperately needs, both now and in the future.
The good news is ScanSource POS and Barcode has the expertise, the resources, and the in-stock products to help you build total healthcare solutions, so your customers can stay ahead of their competition in this briskly changing marketplace. Visit our website to learn more about Zebra’s full suite of healthcare-specific technologies—like wristband and label printers, scanners, mobile computers, and software—and ring us up at 800.944.2432, when you’re ready to get started.
