He also got his own team to develop an iPad version of the hospital’s electronic health record (EHR) software. Potter recalls their response was, “How quickly can we get these?” So he took a big career risk, battling arguments that the devices were just glorified toys, and bought over 1,000 iPads. He kept two in his department for assessment, but then gave two to clinical staff: one to a surgeon and the other to an internal medicine expert. Potter came back from a Las Vegas engagement in early 2010 with four new iPads. What they needed was what Potter called a more “practical and elegant” solution to support the mobile work flow of the hospital staff. But the trolleys cluttered up corridors and the tablet PCs took too long to boot up and ran out of battery power too quickly. The hospital had tried mobile computing before, both in the form of computers wheeled around on trolleys and more recently, tablet PCs. And sometimes they would leave the patient’s bedside to go and look something up or enter it into the system, and then come back. Doctors were printing stacks of patient charts and notes to take on their daily rounds. He said he was dismayed to see how their “work flow” was disrupted. In an interview reported by TabTimes in November 2011, Potter said the first thing he did was shadow clinicians to observe how they used computer information. Back in 2008 they appointed a new chief information officer, Dale Potter, a man with little professional experience in health care but a strong background in IT. One example is Ottawa Hospital in Ontario, Canada a facility comprising four campuses and 1,300 beds. And, some hospitals are so eager to implement iPad technology, they are developing their own apps. In the meantime, the number of applications (apps) that can be downloaded and used on the device is growing rapidly. In fact, it appears that once they have tasted their value, the main thing holding back budget holders from purchasing more of these versatile, handy gadgets, is how to keep them securely inside the hospital.
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