Hospitals and Facility Solutions

Electronic Medical Records and Mobile Point of Care Solution

Electronic medical records reduce the time and expense—as well as errors—associated with patient care. They also help facilitate the quickest treatment possible, as e-records can be transmitted wirelessly in real time. To fulfill their promise, electronic health records need to be accessible 24 x7 by mobile medical professionals. Whether it's during rounds at the patient's bedside or at consultations with other professionals, doctors, nurses and others need a durable mobile device that can keep up with them.

Toughbook rugged mobile computers are designed with doctors, nurses and residents in mind. With features such as durable magnesium-alloy cases, large touchscreens and integrated mobile broadband, healthcare staff have the freedom to work anywhere in the hospital. Staff use Toughbook laptops and mobile clinical assistants (MCA's) to access electronic medical records and instantly make updates to patient information. Nurses use these durable computers to capture vitals, complete detailed charts, and access patient history, in real time. Among other tasks, doctors use Toughbook technology to review patient files and images, and to diagnose patients.

Hospital staff that use Toughbook computers have increased mobility and longer uptimes, resulting in greater productivity and lower operating costs.

Mobile Cart and Mounting Solution

Medical mobile carts provide nurses with extraordinary flexibility to bring the power of medical technology right to a patient’s bedside. But employees often discover that ordinary computers are not equipped to handle the spills and vibrations common with cart-based computing.

Toughbook rugged laptops and mobile clinical assistants (MCA's) are engineered to be shock-, vibration- and spill-resistant, making them ideal for cart-based use. Further, Toughbook computers can be custom-mounted to take advantage of the advanced ergonomic features built into today’s medical mobile carts. This seamless integration enables nurses to deliver more efficient care when making their rounds. Using the integrated barcode scanner built into some Toughbook models, nurses scan patient wristbands to access patient records such as medication and dosage requirements -- ensuring accurate readings and administering of proper dosage amounts. Nurses also review, update, and wirelessly revise those records on central servers. For further patient protection, Toughbook computers can be sanitized. Some units even have a fanless cooling design, ensuring that bacteria and viruses are kept contained by not sucking them into the device and blowing them out later.

Healthcare staff know that when a cart hits a wall, rugged Toughbook computers will keep on working, ready for the next patient. Because Toughbook computers are built for wireless communications and to withstand abuse, nurses are more productive and downtime is minimized, leading to superior patient care.

Pharmacy and Meds Administration Solution

Sloppy handwriting and transcription mistakes lead to thousands of medication errors every year in hospitals and clinics alike. As a result, healthcare facilities are now switching to “paperless” systems to minimize these costly and dangerous errors. But ordinary computers often cannot take full advantage of the tremendous benefits of these paperless systems.

Rugged Toughbook laptops and mobile clinical assistants (MCA's) include all the necessary features to allow doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff to perform a number of tasks- from viewing medical records and X-rays to transcribing prescriptions. The advanced wireless capabilities enable healthcare professionals to access and update medical and patient records in real time. Even patient signatures are captured using the Toughbook computer’s touchscreen display. This not only eliminates messy paperwork, but the need for data entry which is costly and error-prone. In addition, Toughbook computers with integrated Bluetooth technology can receive signals from Bluetooth-enabled scanners that record medications labeled with barcodes. Some Toughbook computers, like the Toughbook MCA, include integrated barcode scanners, so users are able to scan medication and patient information directly into the unit.

The benefits provided by Toughbook mobile computers not only save time and expense, they help ensure greater accuracy of data, resulting in enhanced patient care and safety.

Patient Consent and Education Solution

In order to streamline operations and reduce paperwork, more hospitals are using mobile computers to let patients complete self-service forms or access educational materials. However, lack of familiarity with the device, as well as a stressed and hurried environment, hardly give patients a reason to treat these computers with "kid gloves". As a result, these computers take a beating.

Hospitals are turning to Toughbook rugged laptops and mobile clinical devices (MCA's) as a solution that stands up to the potentially careless user. Toughbook computers are engineered to handle everything from soda spills to tumbles on the floor. With magnesium alloy cases, shock-mounted hard drives and other rugged features, hospitals can put Toughbook computers in patients' hands with confidence. Patients use them to watch educational videos, read post-op instructions, view their X-rays and much more. The daylight-viewable touchscreen allows patients to fill out forms more quickly and easily than using paper forms. And it also allows hospital staff to capture patient signatures electronically. All of this data is streamed wirelessly to a central database where it is made available to doctors and nurses in real time.

Panasonic understands the need to control germs and diseases in these environments. That is why Toughbook laptops and MCA's can be sanitized using the most stringent standards. The MCA even comes with a built-in sanitization reminder and auditing system to ensure its cleanliness. And with its fanless design, it ensures that germs and viruses are not accidentally spread by sucking them into the machine and blowing them out later.

These features make Toughbook mobile computers the obvious choice for hospitals looking to reduce paperwork and streamline operations.

OR, ER and ICU Solution

With every hospital operation, doctors and nurses must follow the strictest sanitization rules possible to ensure vulnerable patients are not contaminated. It’s essential that the computers they use can be made germ free as well. Unfortunately, most computers cannot withstand even the most common disinfection procedures.

Toughbook mobile computers and mobile clinical assistants (MCA's), however, can be sanitized with a number of disinfectants, including alcohol prep pads and Cavi wipes. In addition, some models even have a fanless design, which means germs will not be sucked in and blown out of the computer.

Computers in operating and emergency rooms as well as intensive care units also need to have maximum durability to minimize hardware breakage. Healthcare staff performing critical procedures simply cannot worry about computer downtime due to the drops, spills and bangs associated with the super-intensive environment of ORs, ERs and ICUs.

All Toughbook computers feature durable engineering that helps doctors and nurses focus on fixing patients, not computers.

Radiology and Specialty Solution

For radiologists and other specialists, making rounds the old-fashioned way—on foot and with paper charts—has quickly become an inefficient approach to patient treatment.

Increasingly, radiologists and other specialists are relying on Toughbook mobile computers to quickly access medical data to treat injuries, view lab results and even communicate with other employees—in real time. Armed with Toughbook laptops, specialists can show patients their own X-rays, presented in an easier-to-read digital format. Other Toughbook computer-equipped specialists from anesthesiologists to orthopedists, meanwhile, also meet with patients to share information. Specialists can even check off completed medical procedures and send those updates to central databases, ensuring maximum efficiency and safety while at the same time replacing cumbersome paperwork.

Specialists using Toughbook computers have advanced technology at their disposal that not only helps them do their jobs more efficiently but also treat their patients more effectively.