Volume 16, Issue 5 May 2006
Visiting Nurses use Wireless Notebook's

Companies like United Parcel Service and Federal Express have long known the value of a connected mobile workforce. Accurate package tracking information is available worldwide at any given moment to employees and customers. Shouldn't patient information be available to nurses in the field, taking care of patients at home? The technology has existed for a while, yet may have been expensive and difficult to implement. Today, the technology has become so inexpensive and easy to setup, that every nurse doing homecare should be connected.

Laptops used to cost thousands of dollars, broke easily and were not easy to carry along. Today, small laptops; called notebooks are frequently available for under $500. Notebooks are light and durable, yet have enough power to run Windows. Many cellular providers offer unlimited wireless Internet service for as little as $30 per month.

Nationwide Cellular Internet Service


How to get started
1. Evaluate cellular Internet service in your region.
2. Establish a connection your Home Health system.
3. No training is required, since it's your existing system.

Dell Laptop for $500

For as little as $50 a month ($30 for wireless cellular Internet access and $20 notebook leasing), a nurse can be connected to the corporate network to retrieve up to date information and make entries from a patients home. A nurse working in a hospital has all these resources available, why not out in the field?
Some Home Health agencies have been using laptops for a while, but they need regular telephone lines to connect to the office. Not all patients have telephones and hooking up can sometimes be difficult. Wireless Cellular Internet connections are always on, completely portable and extremely secure. That means staying in touch with the corporate network or single file server is a breeze. The healthcare industry has seen tremendous growth in outpatient services and homecare in recent years. Medicare and insurance companies prefer to get patients out of the hospital as fast as possible and do follow-up care at home. Having wireless notebooks increase profitability by making compliance, billing and record retrieval much more reliable.