A BCS publication for health informatics professionals
has reported how carers in Glasgow are usingBlackberryhandheld devices to provide
a better standard of care for their patients.
The technology enables council staff who care for the elderly
and infirm to respond more quickly to emergency referrals and "home
from hospital" requests.
Brendan Murphy, head of ICT and marketing for Direct and Care
Services at Glasgow City Council, said, "In the past, mobile home
carers were required to visit one of nine local offices throughout
the city looking for detailed fax messages with details of the
client to attend and provide a home care service.
"This method was prone to error, was costly and inefficient. The
home carer and client were often provided with little useful
information, making the first few visits to a new client fraught
with difficulty."
By deploying more than 400 Blackberries, the council said it has
been able to capture more accurate client data. Managers also have
instant e-mail access to their frontline workforce.
This initiative has brought managers closer to their clients and
to lone workers in the field. Lone workers feel less isolated, and
the IT skill level of this staff group has increased greatly, said
the council.
Home carers in Glasgow typically have little exposure to IT, so
training them was a vital part of the mobile roll-out.
Post-training, home carers also have access to an IT support team
member and drop-in sessions are available daily. These are put
together as "how do I do this?" sessions, and cover issues such as
changing the configuration of the Blackberry.
"A focus group of six home carers was initially brought together
for an informal meeting to assess previous exposure to technology
and to determine the best way to train and deploy more than 400
units. This was highly successful, and the carers decided that
implementation should be supported by bringing staff together in
small groups to offer a hands-on experience," Murphy said.
The BCS publication said the training of this workforce may be
seen as a blueprint for training operatives who have limited IT
skills. Hands-on sessions allow a focus on usage to take place and
immediate post-training deployment ensures that skills are not
forgotten.
● This article first appeared inHINow, the
quarterly BCS magazine for health informatics
professionals.