UNC Health Care Hospice trades larger computer workstations for Epic on mobile devices
While there’s no place like home, UNC Health Care aims to provide hospice patients with that same comfortable and welcoming atmosphere. To make patients feel more at ease and minimize disruptions, nurses at UNC now use Epic’s Rover handheld application for mobile devices to care for hospice patients while making rounds, instead of rolling larger workstations from room to room.
The workstations, which included 24-inch monitors, were difficult to navigate without disturbing gatherings of family members visiting the patient. Because the nurses’ scanners were tethered to the workstation, they couldn’t leave the computer at the door when they cared for the patient, either. By using Rover with scanners on hospital-provided mobile devices, nurses now find it much easier to slip in and out of rooms to care for patients at their bedsides without interrupting the patients’ visitors.
UNC found that switching to mobile devices improved the efficiency of their nurses and increased clinician and patient satisfaction, in addition to helping UNC meet CMS guidelines, which state, “The hospice must provide a home-like atmosphere and ensure that patient areas are designed to preserve the dignity, comfort, and privacy of patients.”
