Tablets have become a common sight in medical offices and hospitals, as well as other clinical settings. Why is that? It’s simple – tablets make the job easier for healthcare providers in many ways.

1. Make information available immediately

In days gone by, information was recorded in a patient’s paper chart. If a doctor needed any of the information, they had to obtain the chart. When the chart was unavailable, the information was unavailable, too. Not surprisingly, that was often problematic. For example, if a patient was admitted to the hospital for a chronic condition, the doctors there couldn’t get information about the patient’s medical history unless they had access to the chart.

Today, a patient’s medical history may be stored in an electronic medical record (EMR), and medical personnel can use a tablet to access it. When doctors at one hospital used Windows Surface tablets to access information, they found that the tablets gave them more time for face-to-face patient interaction because they could the data they need when they need it.

2. Offer innovative solutions

There are apps for seemingly everything – banking, checking sports scores, playing games, and coupons are just a handful of examples. It’s no surprise that there are apps related to healthcare, too. In fact, there are thousands of apps available, and they cover a wide variety of issues related to patient care. For example, SpiroSmart uses a tablet’s microphone to take lung measurements of breath capacity. This could help more patients with conditions like asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cystic fibrosis.

3. Increase safety

When preparing a patient for a procedure or surgery, medical personnel run a lengthy checklist to maximize safety and ensure that nothing goes wrong. This may include asking the patient questions, double checking the patient’s date of birth, examining the patient’s hospital bracelet, and so on.

A tablet can help with that, too. Some have barcode scanners, which medical personnel can use to scan the patient’s hospital bracelet. This can be helpful in a variety of ways, including patient ID, order entry and medication administration.

4. Help with practice management

Tablets can be useful to medical personnel in areas of patient care, but they can come in handy in other ways, too. They can allow doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers to keep track of information, including follow up, research, inventory and other routine, daily tasks.

Medical personnel can also use tablets for scheduling and resource planning information from anywhere, as they move about their facility. A tablet makes it easy to enter this information and to access it as necessary.

Making your life easier

At 365 Healthcare Staffing Services, we specialize in the recruitment and placement of healthcare professionals in per diem, travel, and permanent assignments in healthcare facilities across the country. Tablets can make life easier, and so can we: we can help you find your next assignment, so call us at 310.436.3650 today.