Building Digital Nursing Workflows That Improve Outcomes and Empower Nurses

Nursing and clinician teams increasingly face new technologies embedded in nearly every aspect of inpatient and outpatient care. One can’t argue that clinical decision-support tools, connected devices, and real-time data significantly impact and improve care outcomes and streamline workflows. The challenge is in the integration. Without a thoughtful approach to all aspects of a team’s workflow and specific care delivery, the results may unintentionally disrupt the human connection at the heart of care for overburdened nursing teams, directly impacting those they treat.  

Working together, healthcare organizations, facilities teams, technology integrators, and manufacturing partners need to develop strategies to maintain digital momentum and build trust with their clinical staff, never losing sight of who is most impacted. 

Design Technology Around How Nurses Actually Work

Successful digital integration starts with understanding real-world use of technology. It’s more than a myriad of feature sets. It’s also about the devices or equipment that support it and how they fit within a caregiver’s workflow or environment. Complex or unwieldy equipment or integrations may interrupt care delivery, requiring extra, unnecessary steps for caregivers and diverting their focus from their patients.

It’s imperative to:

• Involve caregivers across shifts when mapping their workflows across patient rooms and units to accommodate the broadest range of feedback.
• Identify gaps and pinpoint where technology genuinely supports care delivery. 
• Design to eliminate or reduce redundant documentation or device switching.

A thoughtful alignment of technology devices can create a synergistic balance between nurse-patient engagement, unleashing the positive benefits digital enhancements enable.

Digital Transformation Strengthens Cart Infrastructure As A Strategic Enabler

Adapting mobile carts and mounts with technology to create patient-centered digital care isn’t a new concept for healthcare providers. What is changing is the ready ability to transform standard care delivery carts into flexible technology powerhouses, completely customized to how a nurse accesses information, documents care, and collaborates with clinicians at the bedside.

In the past, providers have struggled to make rigid, one-size-fits-all technology solutions adapt to multiple workflows, leading to caregiver workarounds and inefficiencies. With customized digital integration, mobile solutions can be easily adapted to:

• Different clinical specialties and team acuity levels. 
• Consolidate devices and displays into intuitive setups as they scale.
• Evolving care models and future technology adoptions.
• Differing space constraints and room layouts across a healthcare facility.

Deploying solutions that can be customized to secure the integration of evolving devices, power, and peripherals enhances usability and reliability for providers and caregivers alike. Nurses feel supported, stakeholders achieve support for long-term clinical and operational goals, and patients benefit from shortened response times and meaningful care interactions.

Poorly designed infrastructure can undermine even the most advanced digital platforms. Forward-thinking healthcare organizations and technology integrators recognize, as never before, that partnering with the right custom manufacturers helps bridge the gap between digital strategy and real-world execution.

Moving Forward: Designing for Digital Progress Without Losing the Human Element

Digital healthcare transformation is no longer about whether to do it, but about how to do it in a way that empowers rather than burdens. First’s piece in this puzzle begins with our FirstFit™ Framework, an end-to-end process that ensures that every solution is optimized for the people who use it and the outcomes that matter most. From the first conversation to a fully deployed solution, First Products wants to be an innovation partner in your digital transformation.

See It For Yourself!

We’re showcasing our CODESIGNLIVE Sessions at VIVE and HIMSS. These unique 15-minute meetings illustrate the real power of collaborative, custom design, taking your technology-enabled mobile cart solution from vision to a caregiver powerhouse. 

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