PRODUCTS & SERVICES
if some of these personal touches can be incorporated into much lighter weight form factor, then that would be a home run – for documentation carts.” Sarah Leitz, Director, Product Market-
Hänel Rotomat installation at Florida Hospital
“At their foundation, mobile worksta- tions help caregivers save critical steps by carrying what they need most often to deliver patient care. They’re also designed for clinicians to easily access electronic medical records,” he said. Some workstations are designed with a technology focus and not as much on the user experience and clinical workflows, forcing caregivers to adapt,” Torbett con- tinued. “Too much emphasis on technol- ogy and healthcare software can make it more complicated and difficult to deliver care instead of making it easier. We listen closely to the pains and wishes of clinical users, IT and administrators. It’s about asking open-ended questions and using the right ways to uncover unmet needs and identify innovative ideas for a solution.”
Torbett cites one example of how Capsa installed a seven-inch glass touch screen on the front of its CareLink carts that served as an eye-opener for the company. “We did research with nurses about what belongs in a screen,” he said. “If you had a screen like that embedded in the cart, what do you wish it did? What do you wish you could use your smartphone for in front of patients? It led to the devel- opment of a number of features, some of which we wouldn’t have necessarily even thought of. That was powerful for us.”
Flexibility filleted
Tapping clinician and end-user sug- gestions, manufacturers of mobile and stationary workstations have adapted and improved the products they offer but acknowledge further design and develop- ment efforts will yield the changes needed to remain lock-step with progress. Such progress – incremental and beyond
– starts with a fundamental understand- ing of the function of these products, according to Emma Naclerio, Mechanical Engineer, TouchPoint Medical. “While users of [workstations on wheels may have similar workflows, no two WoWs are used exactly the same,”
56 July 2020 • HEALTHCARE PURCHASING NEWS •
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she told HPN. “At the end of the day, this is the user’s ‘desk,’ and the user should be empowered to customize it as they see fit to do their o his can e achieved through user/ergonomic settings that automatically apply when the user logs in with their RFID badge, bins/hooks/ shelves that the user can swap/rearrange to suit their work, or smaller touches like spaces for writing notes or applying identifying decals and signage.” Capsa’s Torbett links ergonomics into the equation, akin to electronic settings geared to individual drivers of a car. orkstations with a lot of adustaility
and easy maneuverability that adapt to users’ needs is critical to their health and satisfaction,” he observed. “For example, we introduced user stored preferences for standing and seated heights for a work- station, similar to saving user settings in car seats. When caregivers save their preferences, they transfer to every other workstation through our fleet manage- ment system. We also introduced a trigger- operated steer assist feature, designed to reduce strain in users’ shoulders as they push a workstation through hallways.” User “personalization” and adapta- tion are becoming key differentiators, according to Bradley Carlson, Product Manager, Point of Care Solutions, Touch- Point Medical. “In addition, things like an inductive phone/device charger on the work surface or multiple color sec- tion availability are nice touches. With the trend towards non-powered and ‘lightly’ powered carts rapidly growing,
ing, Altus Industries, urges seamless tran- sitions etween devices as a key enefit “Make it easy and simple to move back and forth between mobile and desktop applications,” she said. “Mobile is great for many use cases, but heavy documen- tation on a moile device is difficult and frustrating. Being able to easily go back and forth between the two is critical to workflow and ease of use
Leitz indicates that her company cur- rently is developing with a manufacturing partner – ACS MediHealth – an attachment to the cart that would allow the clinician or end user to dock a mobile device and use it to run software, such as electronic health records – on a larger screen.
The necessary functional attribute that should define workstation design for the near future is integration, according to InterMetro’s Salus.
“More and more procedures are hap- pening at the patient bedside, rather than moving patients to the service,” he noted. “This requires the clinicians to bring their tools and supplies to the patient. The design of the workstation needs to address mobility, portability and integration. The clinicians need to easily transport the workstation with them to the patient but also need the workstation to accommodate their supplies, medica- tions, tools and technology required for the procedure. It makes for a unique solution that delivers these required func- tions that doesnt sacrifice one feature to provide another.”
Midmark’s Hazelwood concurs with
the drive for integration to push worksta- tion development.
“As the practice of healthcare evolves, technology will continue to play a larger role in the exam room and in how phy- sicians and caregivers interact with patients,” he noted. “A fully connected digital ecosystem where point-of-care processes, equipment and caregivers
Altus Cart Portfolio
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