Tablet PC recommendations please/ Medical Field Use/ 20-30 users

[AnMig]

Our small rural hospital (goverment) has decided to go to a totally paperless system, somewhat similar to the VA.

I am the Clinical lead in this group and will be making the decision with regards to what interface the providers (MD's RN's and midlevels)
will use.

The main decision is to either go with computers on every room or work with TAblet PC's.

I am leaning towards the TAblet PC solution as most of the providers take notes and history while they are actually talking to the patient and it would be very impersonal to type facing a monitor as you interview the patient.

Have the tablet PC's matured ?
There has to be good handwriting recognition, or free hand note taking ability.
small and light with a detachable keyboard is a must.
Battery time should be at least 8 hours.

any recomendations or at least where to look.
Anybody here using tablet pc for similar situation.


This project of going Electronic Health record is probably going to take a couple of years althought they want to start in 6-8 months (me rolling my eyes) .
I at least want to do my part and make sure the providers have the proper tools and interface to work with.

Thanks.

 

[Aganack1]

the only removeable keyboard i can think of is the HP one. And i dont think you will find one that will last 8 hours.

 

[AnMig]

thanks for the response

Browsing thru the tablet pc's I guess 8 hour battery life is a bit to deamanding.
I guess we can have it pluged in durring lunch breaks or between patients.

I guess this is what you where looking at HP Compaq TC1100

I guess the keybooard does not have to be attached it could be thru IR or bluetooth.

any body else out there with actual everyday experience with these tablet PC's ?

 

[mbackof]

I do national support for the VA's Vista Imaging group. What computer patient medical record software are you going to use? Commercial or home grown? Some of the solutions I have read about use PDA interfaces for report display and have computers in the room to display the patient image. Some sites are using ultra-thin laptops as well. I agree that the tablet PCs are ideal from a workflow standpoint, but I am not sure of their handwriting recognition, especially since docs are not known for their perfect handwriting.
The VA is using a variety of workstations in the offices of the hospitals to display the Computer Patient Record System(CPRS) Some are using thin clients and others are full blown workstations.
If you plan to display images on a portable device, the VA is mandating that the graphics card for the device has to support 1024x768x32M as a minimum resolution, so that might be a helpful guideline for you.

Good luck,

Mike Backof

 

[AnMig]

thanks for the response "mbackof"

This is what we will be using

link to EHS


As far as what software package we will be using I believe its still undergoing some tweaking.
Some sites arein there Beta phase.

We will probably bee using a combination of workstaion for the nurses and hopefully tablet PC's for the providers.
Most of the forms are "checklist" form anyway but the providers need a easy way to get some handwritten information
into the chart.
Transcription service is out of the question.

I hope to be able to buy one of these devices and try them out but kind of lost on what to buy.

thanks

 

[thorin]

The only thing I can say is make sure your target audience ("MD's RN's and midlevels") gets to test both the HW and software (during development), because without a doubt the specs will come down from a paper pusher or a bunch of doctors that "think" they know what their Admin and RNs need for their job but really don't. As with most organizations the top never knows (even if they've been there) what it's really like on the bottom.

Thorin

 

[Matthias99]

The Toshiba Portege convertible laptops are really nice (one of the ones where you can flip the keyboard around onto the back to turn it into a tablet, or use it as an ultralight laptop). Maybe a bit pricey, though.

Windows Tablet PC Edition (or whatever they call it) offers handwritten note-taking, but I don't *think* it does handwriting recognition (could be wrong; don't own a tablet PC). However, if you're going to be jotting down more than a few sentences, you should really get a convertible tablet so that you have a keyboard there as well.

 

[Utterman]

Originally posted by: Matthias99
The Toshiba Portege convertible laptops are really nice (one of the ones where you can flip the keyboard around onto the back to turn it into a tablet, or use it as an ultralight laptop). Maybe a bit pricey, though.

Windows Tablet PC Edition (or whatever they call it) offers handwritten note-taking, but I don't *think* it does handwriting recognition (could be wrong; don't own a tablet PC). However, if you're going to be jotting down more than a few sentences, you should really get a convertible tablet so that you have a keyboard there as well.

The Portege I used did have hand-writing recongnition software as apart of the Windows package. It also has integrated wireless and would be great for what is being saught after.

 

[AnMig]

The only thing I can say is make sure your target audience ("MD's RN's and midlevels") gets to test both the HW and software (during development), because without a doubt the specs will come down from a paper pusher or a bunch of doctors that "think" they know what their Admin and RNs need for their job but really don't. As with most organizations the top never knows (even if they've been there) what it's really like on the bottom.

the good part about this is I will be actually using this thing in my everyday clinic so I believe I have a say on what we will be purchased.
They are actually asking me to determine what kind of hardware my co-workers and I will most likey use to be effective.

With regards to them trying out the hardware and software before transitioning to a paperless system. I believe there solution is to first try the system on
my clinic and gradually integrate the other clinics as the flow and kinks are worked out.

It would be so much easier if there was an actual model that we are cloning but as far as I know there is not.

will look into the Toshiba portage as the other guys have mentioned.




Toshiba Portage


other obstacles are 3 of our Doctors are Old school type of doctors who have minimal computer skills (e-mail, web browsing)
heck only one of them uses a PDA so it is going to be very painful learning process from them but we have no choice in the matter.
The higher ups decided its going to happen so its going to happen no matter what happens to patient care.

thanks for responses.

 

[DrRock]

If you are looking for something cheap you can find basic Fujitsu st4100's for between $600-$700. You can also find HP tc1000's for $850-$1000. I have had both in the past and with the fujitsu battery aid utility (it works on the tc1000 too) and the screen dimmed I can get between six and seven hours. I personally like the form factor of the HP's the best and I think they have been the best selling too so parts and batteries are not too expensive. If you really have to have 8 hours Electrovaya makes a tablet that will do it. As of right now the handwriting recognition is not great but from what I understand MS is coming out with a new version of XP tablet edition called Longhorn that is supposed to be a free update from what I have heard. If you are looking more high end I just ordered a TC1100 with a slip cover that you can attach a shoulder strap to that will prevent me from dropping it. They also offer a 3 year warranty for $169 that will fix anything except for fire damage or theft. The initial investment might be high but after you drop a few and they fix it for free it might pay off.