In a recent post, we talked about the challenges of sharing devices in a clinical setting.  When considering new devices to meet care delivery needs, it’s logical that CIOs need to establish baseline expectations for vendor partners and technical requirements for solutions, but at the same time, if one of the goals is to achieve full adoption, they should be careful not to dictate the actual device decisions. 

Clinicians need to work within IT requirements and hospital (e.g. Infection Prevention, Facilities) guidelines and be realistic regarding form factor options and accommodation of personal preferences for device type and/or vendor.  For successful clinical device decisions, careful analysis must be performed and future state workflows defined for the entire projected life of the device, not just the initial “project”.  

Those vendors and solutions that meet enterprise requirements should be short-listed as viable candidates. A small group of possible alternatives can be reviewed by a targeted group of well-informed user representatives who can recommend their preference(s) among alternatives based on a clear understanding of the processes the devices will support and the environments where they will be used.    

The analysis should include near-future technologies to be supported and new setting(s) where users will interact with the EHR.  What worked well for nursing notes may not work for Barcode enabled Medication Administration.  MDs that can enter a simple lab test on one device may not be able to use the same one for a set of complex orders.

While it may be an overused cliche, clinicians need the right tool(s) for right job.  Maintenance and total cost of ownership are key considerations, but only if clinicians are effectively using devices in everyday practice to continually improve care delivery and management.