Healthcare Technology Tools
Healthcare organizations have the opportunity to improve on the technology systems they stood up over the past year or so. Virtual rounding - a system in which clinicians use collaboration technologies to see patients virtually - took root and grew astronomically during the pandemic.
One of the most effective ways to do this is to incorporate additional technologies that have the power to multiply the impact of virtual rounding.
1. Devices
Computing devices (typically, tablets and other handheld tools) are at the heart of any virtual rounding healthcare system. It’s best if a virtual rounding strategy is device agnostic — meaning that virtual rounding workflows can run on either Android or Apple devices — to give healthcare organizations maximum flexibility. Medical devices must be integrated with the entire healthcare technology infrastructure and the data tools must communicate with the devices. Summit Technologies builds custom Salesforce integrations that encompass all the tools of your healthcare stack.
2. Collaboration Software
Healthcare organizations should first look to the video collaboration technologies they already have in place when designing their virtual rounding systems. It’s always possible that IT and clinical leaders may eventually decide a new platform will better meet their needs. But by starting with what they know, organizations have the opportunity to limit both complexity and cost. Summit Technologies LLC will analyze your existing tools and make recommendations for the least technical debt to upgrade. Healthcare collaboration software helps you avoid siloed technologies that slow your frontline care teams down in making timely, life saving decisions. Collaboration software that is designed to scale with your organization as it grows saves you time and money.
3. Telehealth Peripherals
Video conversations are just the beginning of what virtual rounding systems can offer. By incorporating peripheral devices such as electronic stethoscopes, healthcare organizations can more accurately mimic a face-to-face experience, provide clinicians with more data and expand the types of patients and conditions for which virtual rounding can be used. Health care providers are integrating a variety of technologies into care deliver from off-the-shelf webcams and laptops to smart phones. Clinically focused telehealth devices share diagnostic data with remote providers and enable real-time sharing.
4. Electronic Medical Records
Integrating a virtual rounding system with a healthcare organization’s electronic medical record system can create a more seamless, organic experience for clinicians, which in turn can drive adoption of the new solution. Such integrations let clinicians record their observations without toggling between multiple applications, allowing them to dedicate more of their attention to their patients and less to the technology employed in caring for them.
5. Patient Experience APIs
Similarly, healthcare organizations should make efforts to integrate virtual rounding with existing patient-facing technologies. One way to do this is through application programming interfaces that focus on the patient experience. These APIs make it easy for patients to join rounding sessions and can tie into personal health record portals. An API (application programming interface) is a set of code and protocols that allows software modules to communicate and exchange data. Programming interfaces can help you integrate pre-built services into your telemedicine platform instead of developing them from the ground up.
6. Asset Tracking
Asset tracking technology has become an increasingly important part of the healthcare IT environment, with facilities looking to enhance efficiency and cut down on the time that clinicians and IT professionals spend searching for misplaced (and often very expensive) medical equipment. Applying these efforts to virtual rounding devices makes good business sense.
7. Business Intelligence
Rather than standing on its own, virtual rounding should be part of an organization’s overall patient care and business strategy. By applying business intelligence tools to its virtual rounding system, a healthcare organization can better track patient outcomes, flag potential problems and fine-tune the role of virtual rounding in patient care. Salesforce Health Cloud is best in class solution for your virtual rounding and business intelligence challenges. Summit Technologies is a Salesforce partner who has been implementing Salesforce cloud solutions since 2016.
8. Mobility Management
Finally, organizations should lean on mobile device management or enterprise mobility management solutions to help them manage virtual rounding devices. By leveraging mobility management tools, organizations can quickly and seamlessly deploy new apps, apply security policies, and monitor and manage their virtual rounding environments. Cloud-based tools make mobility management easier employing less hardware and software to manage your existing devices.
Whether your organization needs healthcare technology hardware, software, or cloud-based solutions Summit Technologies can get you up and running fast.