The BYOD revolution is having a profound impact on healthcare today as organizations leverage mobility to revamp care delivery models, improve patient outcomes and launch new apps that enhance the patient experience. Organizations with secure wireless communications and an agile infrastructure can take advantage of this trend to outpace all others in their field.
Enhancing Care
Delivery
From an operational perspective, giving providers mobile access to medical records and lab results empowers them and boosts productivity. When clinicians have both real-time and historical information at their fingertips, they can make more-informed treatment decisions. When they are free to take that data as they move from patient to patient, provider productivity increases and wait times decline. Mobility also increases efficiency and efficacy in organizations providing in-home services.
Many hospitals are using sensor technology to remotely monitor data on patients with long-term conditions such as heart problems, diabetes, cancer and more. Patients are able to live a more normal life and clinicians are immediately alerted if a patient’s condition requires medical attention. Manufacturers of diagnostic equipment are also adding wireless options to ensure results are easily stored and immediately accessible by all consulting physicians. As more data flows directly to clinicians through mobile devices, they can continuously optimize treatment plans and improve patient outcomes.
Differentiating with Personalized Patient Services
To start, healthcare organizations need to give patients and their loved ones WiFi connectivity to help them pass the time if they’ll be staying for a while. However, they can also leverage BYOD to provide a wide range of new services that enrich the patient experience. For example, large hospitals can offer wayfinder apps that give step-by-step directions to a care provider’s office. Virtual pillbox apps remind patients to take their meds and keep their treatment on track. With real-time scheduling information, organizations can alert patients to delays and preempt waiting room frustration. Providers can also use mobile apps to quickly connect people with the information they are anxious to know – like white blood cell counts or the name of the drug that their doctor mentioned.
Organizations can even use mobile apps to build stronger relationships with people in their communities. With care-on-demand solutions, potential patients can video chat with nurses and doctors. Offering wellness and health coaching apps generates goodwill and builds positive mindshare. Mobile apps are ideal for helping people navigate complex care and explore doctor and specialist options, and ensuring that they choose providers from within the network.
Setting the Stage for Success
For the BYOD revolution to be successful, it needs the right infrastructure to support it. Of course it starts with a secure, reliable wireless network capable of connecting with a growing number of devices, sensors and diagnostic equipment. Today, that means leveraging 802.11 ac Wave2 access points such as those offered by Aruba Networks. It also requires a centralized management solution to profile users, control who has access to what, and prioritize quality of service to ensure that patients playing games online don’t impact the performance of critical applications.
At the same time, healthcare companies will need an infrastructure optimized to protect and store large quantities of data – patient records, lab results, sensor readings and more. Any latencies will cause delays throughout the organization and for the patients they serve.
Don’t be left behind. Mobility is now critical to enhancing the patient experience – at the point of care and beyond. Let American Digital show you what it takes to start your own BYOD revolution.