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The company received feedback from 1,500 nursing managers, IT decision-makers and patients to determine how patient care will transform by 2022. The ability to use mobile devices like laptops, tablets, cordless barcode scanners and mobile printers will help increase clinical mobility, according to the study. Approximately 72% of surveyed decision makers suggested that mobile devices are already improving the quality of patient care while giving clinicians actionable intelligence of the patient at the bedside.
According to the survey, nearly all hospitals predict that mobile devices will be used by 97% of nurses at the bedside and 98% of physicians by 2022. The presence of mobile technology will also see an increase in care teams like pharmacists, lab technicians, radiologies and patient transport professionals.
Zebra Technologies reports that mobile technology being used by nurses will see an increase from 65% to 95% of nurses using it while pharmacists and pharmacy technicians will see a rise from 42% to 96%, lab technicians 52% to 96% and ICU nurses from 38% to 93%.
The study also reports that there will be a reduction in preventable errors with the adoption of mobile technology at the bedside. Nursing managers and IT decision-makers expect errors in medication administration to reduce by 61% and specimen collection labeling to reduce by 52%.
“It enhances patient safety because if there’s an occurrence with a connected device with a patient, that clinician will know in real-time. They’ll be alarmed and alerts will be sent to the clinician,” Chris Sullivan, global healthcare practice lead at Zebra Technologies, said.
Clinical staff will also be spending more time at a patient’s bedside with mobile technology. It was reported that 91% of nurses will be able to access electronic health records, 92% will access medical and drug databases and 88% will access lab diagnostic results using mobile devices.
An improvement in data streams can be expected as well. By 2022, 98% of IT decision-makers surveyed expect that predictive analytics and early notification of life-threatening conditions will be sent to clinicians mobile devices. Additionally, real-time locators will be used to locate equipment, supplies and pharmaceuticals.
“It also diminishes undesirable interruptions. There are layers of intelligence that are being built into medical devices that can identify specific reasons for alerts or alarms. That can have the effect of not interrupting clinicians for lower level concern areas,” Sullivan said.
About 80% of survey respondents reported feeling positive about the rise of mobile tools being used to improve care.
“Clinical mobility is a highly transformative, powerful trend which is having a significant impact on improving the quality of patient care around the world. The sheer number of nurses and IT managers that replied to our survey to say how much mobility has improved their work speaks to a clear trend of better mobile solutions adoption in healthcare,” Sullivan said. “The fact that patients themselves are encouraged and enthusiastic about mobility shows it has a growing association with receiving the best standard of treatment. At Zebra, we believe clinical mobility is essential for the healthcare industry becoming more efficient and effective while enabling healthcare professionals the best means to help people.”
