Mobile apps are helping the American consumer manage a bevy of lifestyle functions. From driving to shopping, there are mobile apps to help us save money, keep us entertained, and manage our health. Fitness apps help people keep in line with diet and exercise programs and medical apps can help those so inclined to self-diagnose a variety of illnesses.
From individual care to clinical care, more and more mobile apps are being built specifically for clinician use. There are apps for clinicians that serve as drug reference guides and image-based diagnostic tools. In essence, anything a medical provider could find in a library or reference website is likely now on a mobile app, or will be soon. A recent briefing published in the journal Health Affairs, by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, predicts that the number of mobile health apps will increase by a rate of 25 percent a year for the foreseeable future.
As mobile apps begin bridging the gap between clinician and patient, patients are receiving better and faster care. Consider how software is already changing the world of cardiology with the mobile EKG. Using a smartphone, mobile software, and a portable device a patient wears, an EKG can be recorded in real-time and the results transmitted to a cardiologist or physician instantly allowing them to actually see the person’s heart rhythm as its happening.
What about home health care? Are the clinical needs of the home health provider lost in the shuffle or late to adopt? Not in the least. There are apps helping the home health clinician care for patients who are home bound, recovering from surgery or living with chronic diseases, provide the best care possible.
Why are these apps important? Several reasons:
- Accountability. These apps use GPS and electronic signatures to ensure services were provided at the patient’s home during the time scheduled. Both the clinician and the home health agency use this data to ensure compliance with CMS and state and federal regulations.
- Accuracy. When a provider ‘checks-in’ at a patient’s home, they have immediate access to medical records and patient data for the current visit and all past visits, ensuring the plan of care is accurate, including all drug interactions. This is especially important in light of a national survey that revealed 60 percent of adults don’t tell health professionals they have drug allergies unless specifically asked.
- Efficiency. Spending less time on paperwork and more time on patient care is one of the main purposes of the mobile app. When all data can be entered electronically and recorded on-site, it eliminates the need for clinicians to travel back to the agency office to enter data into the system.
Of course, mobile apps for both home health care and mainstream health have a cost savings component as well. Technology helps the American worker—including the healthcare provider—perform functions faster.
With more patients seen in an efficient and effective way, providers can monitor a patient remotely, discover problems sooner, and treat issues faster. Particularly with chronic diseases like congestive heart failure, pulmonary disease and diabetes, clinicians can monitor conditions rather than waiting for a patient to discover problems themselves.
A report underwritten by AT&T and conducted by Kauffman Foundation and Brookings Institution economist Robert E. Litan found remote monitoring technologies could save as much as $197 billion over the next 25 years in the United States.
John Olajide is founder and CEO of Axxess, a training, technology support, and consulting services company that works with home healthcare agencies. In this role he is responsible for charting the strategic vision and direction of the company. Prior to founding Axxess in 2007, John was an independent consultant for home health agencies.
Source: http://healthcare.dmagazine.com/2014/07/01/mobile-apps-the-new-era-in-home-healthcare/
