Mobile nursing app for BlackBerry promises major NHS efficiencies
17th August 2010 - iNurse, the mobile healthcare system that frees up nurses and community teams to spend more time on patient care, is now being made available to thousands more staff on BlackBerry, one of the most widely-used mobile devices in the NHS.
This news follows guidance from the Department of Health on the importance of using mobile technology to deliver efficiencies, and comes as the NHS works to deliver £15-£20billion in savings over the next five years, including a radical restructuring of the health service.
iNurse, from Advanced Health & Care, streamlines communication with mobile healthcare teams by delivering appointments, patient notes and updates directly to a handheld device - removing unnecessary travel, paperwork and phone calls, and freeing up an extra hour a day for patients. Uniquely for a handheld system, it helps health service managers to plan team rotas and build crucial management data.
iNurse is being successfully used by a number of mobile NHS services, and the move to develop the solution for BlackBerry will put it within reach of thousands more healthcare staff. Over 150,000 public service employees already use the device.
Carrie Goodbourn, Business Development Director at Advanced Health & Care, the market leader in software for urgent and unplanned care, said, “The current reforms in the NHS require radical new ways of working, and iNurse is the perfect example of how this can be achieved.
“By using the everyday mobile technology that many healthcare workers already use, we can streamline working practices and deliver measurable efficiencies to NHS customers very quickly.
“Our partnership with BlackBerry puts iNurse within reach of thousands more NHS employees, and will enable managers to implement the system very cost-effectively.”
Daniel Morrison-Gardiner, Senior Government Account Manager at Research in Motion, developers of BlackBerry said, “On average, frontline community staff spend approximately 30% of their time with patients, so a solution like iNurse - that cuts out administration and travel and increases patient-facing time - is a very compelling one. It has clear potential to benefit not only the NHS but any health or social care organisation with a mobile workforce.”
iNurse enables mobile healthcare teams to receive and send case information via handheld devices, eliminating the need to travel frequently back to base or spend lengthy periods on the phone. The system also makes consultations easier, with key patient information available at the touch of a button.
Existing users include community nursing teams within Bedfordshire PCT/Bedfordshire Community Health Service, and MedOCC (Medway On Call Care) community night nursing team in Kent.
Reported benefits include:
- an estimated one hour of administration time a day freed up for patient care
- quicker and more accurate patient and management information, supporting better services
- improved visibility and safety of lone workers
- improved quality of care - new cases or updates come through as a discreet ‘beep’ on the device, rather than a phone call in the middle of a consultation
Developed as a solution for all mobile care workers, iNurse is also attracting increased interest from other mobile services, for example, out-of-hours emergency dentistry.
