Advanced Health & Care sees increased demand for NFC enabled care solutions
23 May 2011 - Advanced Health & Care (AH&C), a leading supplier of IT management systems for health and social care services, is seeing a surge in demand for its revolutionary mobile workforce solution which leverages the latest Near Field Communication (NFC) technology in mobile phones.
AH&C’s iConnect allows remote healthcare providers to better manage service user visits by providing real-time communication between thousands of care workers and their supporting office staff. In addition to enhanced security, lone worker support and improved accuracy of outcome data, iConnect typically delivers efficiency savings of over 20 per cent by eliminating time-consuming paper-based processes.
The increased demand for mobile working solutions within the social care market comes at a time when retailers across the UK are preparing to allow consumers to make payments in shops using NFC-enabled mobile phones. Major mobile phone operators and manufacturers, banks and retailers are investing heavily to make their NFC technology a success ahead of imminent product launches in 2011.
Jim Chase, Managing Director of Advanced Health & Care, says, “We have recognised for some time the substantial benefits that NFC-enabled mobile technology can bring and there is now huge interest in our iConnect product. This market-leading solution has been developed specifically for providers delivering care in the home: it’s simple, reliable and runs on low cost devices. The key to NFC is the fact that you can deliver a lot of information, accurately and with minimal user intervention over the mobile phone network.”
iConnect delivers live schedules and service user information to care workers, whilst providing verifiable arrival and departure times to office staff in real time. On arrival and departure, care workers simply touch their mobile phone against a small RFID tag placed discreetly in the service user’s home. The product is secure and, most importantly, non-intrusive and allows information to be immediately exchanged without using the service user’s landline telephone.
Chase comments, “By removing the need to store, access and update confidential health records in paper form, iConnect typically provides care providers with efficiency savings of over 20 per cent. If all 111,700 local authority care workers achieved this efficiency gain, an extra 34.4 million service user visits could be made each year. If private providers followed suit, a further £112 million of savings could be delivered, potentially delivering transformational benefits for care in the community.”
Mike Garrod, Managing Director of Carewatch South Midlands, a current user of iConnect says, “iConnect took only four weeks to implement and has provided us with an return on investment in just 12 months. In addition to transforming staff productivity, iConnect also gives us the flexibility to easily adapt to the changing needs of the social care market, including the onset of personalisation which is going to be key in the future.”
iConnect is available with a range of tailored airtime packages from leading mobile carriers to maximise value for money.
