Doctors Hospital has installed a CISCO Wireless LAN which allows employees and patients to access wireless Internet.
The publicly traded hospital said its strategic plan focuses heavily on “excellence in patient care and physician services” and said the implementation of the wireless service was one of a list of improvements in value added services to its customers.
In a press release from the hospital, Kendall Robins, Co-ordinator for Management Information Systems (MIS) said, “The focus for Doctors Hospital is the pursuit of excellence in the delivery of healthcare, and a key component of the strategic plan mandates the use of information technology to positively transform every aspect of the patient’s experience within the facility, ensuring high levels of patient satisfaction.”
According to one web source, it has taken time for wireless services to catch on in the medical field but because of its convenience it is catching on slowly.
“Wireless devices have been around for some time, but they have only recently begun to see use in hospital settings. This is largely because of the convenience factor that they have and as hospitals have realised that they are helpful for many aspects of patient care, they have been increasingly interested in utilising them for that purpose.” And what will patients get from the wireless service?
Well, Doctors says that they would have the ability to check e-mail, have access to the hospital’s information and web services, be able to research medical topics that might pertain to a patient’s condition and which could improve their understanding of that condition, the ability to communicate with family and friends while in hospital or just carefree and curious surfing of the web.
“At the end of the day patient access to the wireless network is about providing mobility, communication, information, flexibility and customer satisfaction,” hospital officials also said.
Technological experts also say that some traditional doctors might not like the idea of wireless services in the hospitals because it changes the nature of the doctor patient relationship.
One such view is that, “The problem with getting doctors to use this technology is that they are so used to the way that things work now that they often do not want to make changes that might end up having an adverse impact on what goes on in their interactions with patients.”
Such issues do not seem to be a problem at Doctors Hospital however. “This new initiative falls in line with the hospital’s vision to be the best healthcare provider in the region,” said the hospital’s spokesperson. “[We’re able to do this] while achieving best practices as they relate to patient care standards as defined by Joint Commission International.”
Experts in this area have also said that wireless systems in hospitals help with the professional side of the business as well. For one thing, it helps to overcome some of the challenges of managed healthcare such as doing away with voluminous paperwork in favour of electronic medical records.
By: BARRY WILLIAMS, The Nassau Guardian
