mHealth Congress: Leveraging mobile technology to create more accountable care
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If a psychiatric patient presents at a Banner emergency room equipped with telemedicine tools and a mental health provider isn’t physically available, the patient wouldn’t need to wait long to receive care. Banner, a multi-hospital system that spans seven states, has implemented telemedicine tools that would allow for treatment from a provider at another facility.
The ability to consult a patient from miles away is just one of many resulting from the health IT tools Banner’s implemented to make its care more accountable.
Nurses no longer respond to false alarms in intensive care units because telemonitoring allows providers to check the severity of a situation from a remote location, freeing up nurses on the floor to care for other patients. Similarly, patients with chronic diseases can save the time and effort of a physical appointment by taking their blood pressure at home and submitting the results electronically.
Most of the health IT tools currently being used by Banner are helping providers by streamlining workflow, but there are also perks for patients and more on the way. Web-based and mobile tools are now available to patients with functions that show them how long wait times are in emergency rooms, allow them to preregister for visits and integrate EHR information with personal health records. Nguyen imagines a day when a sort of clinical decision support will help patients decide whether they want surgery.
While Banner is able to prove that these tools have helped reduce average lengths of stay and morbidity rates, according to Nguyen, there are imperfections. The most glaring is that the health IT services operate on separate platforms, as there isn’t a tool available to host them all.
Still, Banner is increasingly leveraging technology to engage patients, enable physicians and reduce the burden on primary care providers, Nguyen said.