Strives for Highest Standards of Patient Safety and Medical Excellence
HONG KONG – January 28, 2010. Union Hospital today announced the launch of its Mobile Clinical Solution. It has become the FIRST hospital in Hong Kong to deploy a mobile point of care solution enabling doctors and nurses to wireless access up-to-minute patient record and clinical information, allowing real-time intervention of critical situation and ensures emergencies are responded in a quick and efficient manner. Patient care and safety is greatly enhanced. The system is jointly developed by Union Hospital, eWell Hong Kong and Motorola.
Avoiding Transcription Errors
“Mobile Clinical Solution” is an innovative concept which can be applicable in pharmacy, inpatient and outpatient services. Medical professionals could access to the data of patient’s vital signs, including pulse rate, respiration rate, body temperature, blood pressure and other relevant notes into the Clinical Management Programme (CMP) via a hand-held device, Motorola MC 55. The system would automatically raise an alert signal when abnormal data is inputted, thus the data checking capability ensured accurate transcription.
During ward rounds, doctors could check patients’ medical records, pathology and medical imaging reports through the hand-held devices, new prescriptions or other orders could also be inputted similarly. When a doctor writes a prescription, it is sent electronically to the pharmacists and they will review and verify the order and arrange dispensing of medication. The system helps avoid manual transcription and medication errors.
Automatic Medication Dispensing System
All medication profile of patients can be administered by the system. Automatic check would be made to assure that the drug being prescribed is for the right patient with the right dose being given at the right time. In addition, our medication dispensing processes would be administered by two senior nurses for mutual supervision. This will virtually eliminate medication errors due to omission, wrong identification of patients and drugs errors by nursing staff. The Electronic Prescription system has also been upgraded with drug allergy profile. The system will pop up warnings against drug-to-drug interaction with any newly prescribed medication when patient’s present medication history is available.
In blood sample taking process, pathology staff would scan the bar-code to identify the patient via bar-code reader of the handheld device. After the identification procedure, a bar-code label would be printed on the blood samples so as to eliminate the risk of error matching.
Electronic Patient History
Electronic patient history is used in Union Hospital and Polyclinics. Doctors could access patient’s history through this electronic system in order to make comprehensive medial judgment. Once a patient has made an appointment, the built-in SMS reminder system would automatically send an appointment reminder to the patient the day before his appointment. Meanwhile, doctor would receive SMS showing the list of their bookings and operation schedule.
Food Allergy Reminder
The hospital restaurant has installed the point-to-sell system for food safety reminder. In preparation of meal for in-patient, reminder would be automatically shown if the patient is allergic to certain food or has any special dietary requirement by doctors。
In the coming future, Mobile Clinic Solution will be extended to blood transfusion. Union Hospital will also deploy medical consumable management and tracing system, picture archiving and communication system in the hospital.
Promoting Medical Efficiency
Dr. Anthony Lee, Chief Hospital Manager & Medical Director of Union Hospital said, “The power to access clinical and other critical patient related information in real time helps our doctors, nurses and other allied health staff to streamline day-to-day tasks. This help reduced their workload and free up time that can be spent at the patient’s bed side. The data capture and wireless access capability helps us to render our process for error proof which in turn will improve patient safety and the quality of health care we provide. We are continuously looking for ways to improve efficiency and to deliver quality medical health care. The system certainly helps to reduce human error and enhance patient safety. Doctors, nurses and patients will all benefit from it.”
While tailor a Clinical Solution to suit on local market, the main difficulty seems to arise not over the R&D efforts, but how to transform a high-touch concept into a value hospital. In this regard, I’m very pleased that through the close cooperation with Union Hospital by clinical trials and approach a detailed workflow, which has been greatly help us to achieve this objective, said Dennis Yu, VP of Ewell Hong Kong Limited.
“Motorola’s MC55 Mobile Computers combined with Ewell’s Mobile Clinical Solutions offer the capabilities that enable Union Hospital deliver outstanding medical services,” said Patrick Chan, regional sales director, Motorola Enterprise Mobility, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and South China. “The new solutions offer voice connection and real-time seamless access to patient information, allowing doctors and nurses to act efficiently and effectively across the hospital. The data capture capability inserts double-checks into processes, helping achieve high standard of patient safety.”
About Union Hospital
Union Hospital, which is the only private hospital in the Eastern New Territories, was established in 1994. It is a progressive and contemporary hospital service provider, fully accredited by various international and local institutions. Union Hospital is committed to delivering quality healthcare in the community and beyond, and has developed a reputation for patient-centric services, state-of-the-art technology and premium facilities.
Website : www.union.org
About Ewell Hong Kong Limited
Ewell Hong Kong Limited, a provider of e-Healthcare products and solution services, mainly focus on developing solutions for hospitals, such as Mobile Nursing System, Clinical Medical Program, Electronic Medical Record System and Baby Tracking System. Ewell specializes in assisting healthcare services institutions i [0] mprove operational efficiencies and deliver efficient and accurate patient care through customized electronic solutions. Customer satisfaction being its driving force, Ewell believes in offering maximum value to their clients with their IT investments, giving Ewell an edge over the competition.
Website : www.ewell.hk
About Motorola
Motorola is known around the world for innovation in communications and is focused on advancing the way the world connects. From broadband communications infrastructure, enterprise mobility and public safety solutions to high-definition video and mobile devices, Motorola is leading the next wave of innovations that enable people, enterprises and governments to be more connected and more mobile. Motorola (NYSE: MOT) had sales of US $30.1 billion in 2008.
Website : www.motorola.com
Download Press Release
