Solution Spotlight: Mobile Medical Carts
Customer: 300 Bed Regional Medical Facility
Location: Central Indiana
Highlights
This regional hospital was migrating to a new electronic medical record system and implementing mobile medical carts to improve patient care and remain compliant with government regulations. The internal resources needed to complete the project on time were limited, so the customer secured MCPc to develop and execute the solution. MCPc procured all of the necessary hardware, assembled the components and stored the completed carts until they were ready to be deployed within the hospital.
Benefits
- Customer's hardware costs were reduced significantly by leveraging MCPc's buying power to procure the components.
- The hospital's IT staff was able to concentrate on priority operations rather than cart assembly.
- MCPc completed the project ahead of schedule which allowed for on-site testing to ensure a seamless launch.
- End users now have efficient access to patient medical records which can travel with them throughout the hospital while maintaining data security.
Business Need
To remain compliant with government HIPAA regulations to protect authentic data and patient records, the organization was migrating to a new electronic medical record system. Mobile medical carts were desired to provide wireless workstations for all caregivers. These intelligently designed and engineered carts would allow doctors, nurses and assistants access to accurate, timely medical information that could be recorded and updated in real time.
The facility needed a total of 165 medical carts which had to be purchased, assembled, tested and deployed within two months. The customer built and beta tested 30 carts in house and quickly realized that they were limited by the hospital’s available space and small IT staff. The hospital turned to MCPc, its server and datacenter solution provider, for assistance.
Solution
MCPc worked with the customer’s IT staff to determine their specific needs and required capabilities for each medical cart. Leveraging its vendor-neutral status, MCPc procured Axel M85 thin client devices, 19” LCD monitors and medical-grade keyboards and mice — which must be waterproof for cleaning and sanitization purposes — from multiple suppliers. All components were shipped to MCPc’s Louisville configuration lab and storage facility where carts were assembled, tested and housed before being deployed to the hospital.
The medical facility was updated on project status via a collaboration site that was used to track the number of carts completed each day. As each unit was completed, MCPc technicians collected serial numbers and created asset tags so that hospital staff could keep track of each medical cart’s location at any time.
Results
MCPc’s configuration center technicians assembled all 165 carts in only 20 working days which allowed the hospital to complete their own series of tests before they were deployed to end users. By managing the project from procurement to deployment, MCPc was able to present one invoice to the customer — saving hospital finance staff from managing individual invoices from each of the five manufacturers used for this project.
The mobile medical carts developed by MCPc feature high quality thin client devices and integrated wireless capabilities. Due to MCPc’s purchasing power as a value-added reseller, the customer’s hardware costs per cart were reduced significantly from the 30-unit beta test. In addition, the wireless connection is more secure and reliable as the beta units used a separate wireless bridge. Using MCPc’s storage facility, rather than procuring additional off-site storage while mobile carts were configured and tested, provided additional cost savings.
The hospital’s doctors, nurses and other patient-facing employees are now able to easily access patient medical records from any location within the hospital and travel with the carts from room to room as needed. Even with this mobile connection, patient records remain secure and up to date with HIPAA regulations.
If your organization is considering mobile technology carts — often ideal for healthcare and educational institutions — then MCPc is ready to talk to you and customize a solution to meet your requirements.