Mobile Connectivity Brings Last Mile Services to Patients

 

Background

Murtis Taylor Human Services System provides health and human services support services to 11,000 people annually in Cleveland, Ohio. Often clients can’t come to their offices, so Murtis Taylor’s 130 mobile case managers needed a way to bring services directly to them.

Implementation

The first step in enabling their case managers to go mobile was moving to a cloud-based electronic health records system (EHR). This made all patient records, medications, treatment plans, and test results available to case workers through a simple browser. In order to utilize the EHR in the field, case workers needed a portable outreach kit to bring their services the last mile to patients. The kit includes:

• A laptop computer: Murtis Taylor purchased used laptops from BBC Technology Solutions in Cincinnati for around $250/each.
• A 4G mobile hotspot: 70 mobile hotspots were purchased from Mobile Beacon with unlimited data plans for $10/month. A few hotspots were also purchased from AT&T to serve areas where Mobile Beacon did not have coverage.
• A digital signature pad: They currently use Topaz Signature Pads, but plan to eventually move to mobile touchscreen devices, which won’t require a separate piece of equipment for signatures.

Results

Murtis Taylor’s mobile case managers now have online access to their EHR and agency documents while in clients’ homes, and can do nearly everything they need to do for people in the community without having to come in to the office. Bob Cerny, MIS Manager for Murtis Taylor says this “has greatly facilitated client care and our agency productivity.”

 

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