The healthcare sector is among the top three industries seeing the heaviest adoption of the iPad for business use, according to data from Good Technology, a Redwood City-based provider of multi-platform enterprise mobility.
The data comes from an analysis of Good Technology’s user base, which includes more than 4,000 enterprise customers, whose iPad deployments range from one to more than 1,000 iPads.
One reason the iPad is being adopted bey telecom and IT managers in the healthcare industry is because hospitals’ current mobile devices have become a “barrier” due to their size, weight and battery life, said Nick Volosin, ISS director of technical services at Kaweah Delta Health Care District in California. The hospital is considering using the iPad in areas like pharmacy, emergency, dietary, home health, hospice, clinical engineering/bioMed and for private practice physicians and nursing supervisors.
According to feedback from the hospital’s emergency department the iPad is also a potential telecom and IT cost saver. The emergency department estimates that it could trade a COW (computer on wheels), which costs $7,500, for three iPads, costing $1,500.
Kaweah Delta Health Care District is also looking into having the iPad work with a barcode scanner for a portable device for MAK (Medication Administration Check), which helps prevent medication errors, said Volosin.
Electronic medical records applications that are specifically designed for the iPad could be another reason why adoption in the healthcare industry may see more growth. Experts predict that the iPad could even be a “game changer” for EHR adoption.
Is your IT and telecom budget ready for the flood of iPads in your healthcare facility? Do you even know what have for telecom inventory? If you don’t, it might be time to get another new tool for your hospital or clinic, Clearview – a telecom expense, inventory and invoice processing platform. And it’s web-based, so it’s just login and go. One less headache for our IT staff, who will be busy deploying all those iPads….