Database of Scriptum

Bedside care is a vital part of health care professionals' relationships with their patients at the hospital. But the staff at hospital found that modern technology sometimes made those interactions more difficult. When Apple introduced iPad, physicians at the hospital knew they'd found a solution.

A custom iPad app enables physicians and nurses to perform important tasks from the bedside, increasing time spent with patients and improving relationships.

The inability to bring information to the bedside meant physicians had to constantly shuttle between patients and tethered PCs to get status updates, schedule surgeries, prescribe drugs, view X-rays, and perform other important tasks. Since the introduction of technology in this industry physicians have been tethered to devices like PCs and forced to go seek information. Even a laptop wasn't truly mobile.

With iPad, the hospital's doctors and nurses have bedside access to everything they need, and can remain in contact with patients and their families while viewing information that is critical to their care. They can answer patients' questions immediately and make decisions about what's going to be done, with the most current information available. Nothing beats being able to use an app to pull up an X-ray on the device.

Not only has iPad increased efficiency from a provider perspective—it's increased engagement between the provider and patient.

The iPad has been popular with health care providers. This is not too surprising, as doctors, nurses and other practitioners have been using the iPad's older sibling, the iPhone, for several years, for everything from voice recording to clinical data entry. Many argue that the iPad's larger screen sets the stage for even more clinical uses.

The iPad has pros and cons associated with its use in health care. Several characteristics explain the rapid pace of iPad adoption among health care providers:

• The iPad is roughly the same size as patient charts.
• It has a large screen that can be used to share information with patients.
• The price makes it affordable for physicians.
• It can run all the medical apps available on the iPhone.
• It can be used to enter data into EHR and computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems.

On the other hand, problems associated with iPad use in health care include the following:
• It might not be durable enough, and is difficult to disinfect.
• It does not support USB devices or printers.
• It has no camera.
• Its free-form factor could give rise to ergonomic issues and security breaches -- though these issues could arise with the use of any tablet device.