Saving time with more modern tech to prioritize patient care

Every day millions of people make appointments to see their medical providers. And, according to recent research, waiting time—meaning the time it takes a patient to secure an appointment—now clocks in at a whopping 26 days.

While this can be infuriating for patients, doctors are often equally frustrated.

Consider what behind-the-scenes processes look like for providers. They too suffer thanks to extensive patient charting, prior authorization and approvals with various insurance companies, and tedious coding responsibilities—which are just a few examples of administrative work that robs clinicians of time with patients.

Practice medicine, eliminate busy work

Chronic healthcare staffing shortages in the wake of unprecedented challenges stemming from the global COVID-19 pandemic have taken center stage, raising concerns about quality care.

Per 2021 research, one in five physicians say they’re likely to leave their current practice within two years–many citing exhaustion. As a result, while patients may understandably argue they don’t receive enough face-to-face time with their healthcare provider, current trends indicate this is not likely to change anytime soon. This is a concern for patients and clinicians alike.

For providers who remain in the industry, spending more time with patients at the point of care is critical to overall job satisfaction. For example, let's assume that during a family medicine practitioner’s typical work week, he or she spends roughly 40 percent of the day with patients. This means the remaining 60 percent is consumed by administrative tasks.

The first step in solving this problem is providing ubiquitous access to patient data through a combination of real-time informational entry and updates, mobile access, and automated alerts. These steps can help clinicians spend additional time bedside by significantly streamlining workflows while easing administrative burdens.

Champion convenient scheduling and cut wait times

The shift toward online and app-based appointment booking was already gaining popularity before the COVID-19 pandemic, but now it’s paramount as patients demand a more convenient way to manage appointments.

Secure mobility-backed scheduling, like an app or a mobile-optimized online portal, is a vital convenience that allows patients to access real-time availability. It also enables them to choose appointments that suit their schedules, eliminating the need for time-consuming phone calls.

Additionally, a secure messaging and notification feature can allow quick communication, ensuring timely responses to appointment requests.

Increase time with patients and streamline documentation

Secure mobility supports the notion that frontline healthcare workers should spend their time caring for patients via direct communication and documentation at the point of care—not after the fact.

Mobility offers efficient and immediate access to medical data and records on mobile devices, which facilitates real-time data entry, instant access to decision support tools, and immediate secure communication. Automating administrative processes via mobile technology also diminishes reliance on manual, time-consuming, and error-prone paper-based processes.

Decrease cognitive load, simplify requests using automation

We all know what it's like to feel overworked and run down. The last thing you want in any medical situation is for your doctor to feel so overtaxed that their decision-making skills suffer. The power of a mobile-backed clinician workflow increases productivity and can help improve patient safety due to fewer fatigue-related errors.

Mobile automation also facilitates patient identification, centralizes medication management, and streamlines documentation requirements. It helps ease the physical and emotional stress of patient care by managing cognitive workloads and ultimately supports more time in direct care.

At its most basic level, secure mobility offers more—more time to treat patients who need it, more time to ask questions, more time to make the world safer and healthier.

Enhance healthcare and streamline workflows with secure mobile apps

Secure mobile applications and Edge Computing can play a critical role in streamlining workflows, increasing staff productivity, and helping reduce burnout among the healthcare community.

Here's how:

Patient care and safety: Patients can easily access their health records, communicate directly with healthcare providers, schedule appointments, and manage medications from the palm of their hand and comfort of their home. Mobile apps can also facilitate telemedicine services, enabling remote care. Edge Computing can process health data on a device in real-time, which can be especially useful in monitoring vitals and detecting anomalies.
Streamlined workflows: Mobile apps can automate various administrative tasks such as appointment scheduling, registration, and record-keeping, reducing manual labor and streamlining workflows. By pushing computations to the Edge, healthcare providers can minimize network latency and speed up data processing times, boosting efficiency.
Increased staff productivity: Automating repetitive tasks allows healthcare staff to focus on care rather than administrative duties. For clinicians, processing data at the Edge enables real-time insights at the point of care, speeding up decision-making and improving treatment outcomes.
Faster and more accurate payments: Secure mobile apps can automate billing and payment processes, reduce paperwork, and minimize errors. They can also make the process more transparent, allowing real-time payment tracking. Plus, Edge Computing can reduce processing times for insurance claims, enabling faster reimbursements.

Mission Impact Story: United States Northern Command

Learn more about Monkton’s Edge-based dynamic data-centered solutions for COVID-19 response

Responding to ever-changing COVID-19 circumstances, U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) needed to leverage Edge Computing solutions to provide rapid support and make informed decisions on defense efforts. USNORTHCOM embraced Edge-based mobility in the form of real-time data collection from dynamic questionnaires as a mission-critical tool.

Leveraging Monkton’s Federally wide IDIQ—Mobile Apps to the Tactical Edge Ready (MATTER)—Monkton delivered USNORTHCOM with a life-saving system that collected and helped analyze data. This directly informed decision-making on where General Shaughnessy deployed personnel across the country. What’s more, this fully functional Edge-based solution captured real-time COVID-19 data to provide General O’Shaughnessy instant feedback.

MATTER is a rapid acquisition strategy that enables the creation of new capabilities and solves problems in a scalable, repeatable manner. For USNORTHCOM, MATTER was an essential solution for Monkton to build and deliver the LOGSTAT, MEDSTAT, and PERSTAT mobile applications versions 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2 on iOS and Android.

Monkton capabilities leveraged and delivered through the MATTER IDIQ include:

Native Mobile Application Development
Security and Compliance for Cloud and Mobile
DevSecOps
Edge Computing and Tactical Edge Mobility
Platform as a Service (“PaaS”) and Functions as a Service (“FaaS”)

As a trio of mobile applications, LOGSTAT, MEDSTAT, and PERSTAT securely collected information from users in the field—whether they were deployed on a ship in the middle of the ocean, underwater in a submarine, in a disaster recovery zone, or in a hospital—enabling proactive support capabilities exactly where needed.

Real-time end-user reporting, or forward deployer reporting, enabled predictive data on future hot spots on land and sea while synergistic data captured a complete logistical picture for mission success.

MATTER facilitated capturing:

COVID-19 infection rates
Field hospital capacity
Self-readiness reporting
Patient medical charts
Predictive insights on future COVID-19 hotspots
Immediate communication with forward deployers

Learn more about MATTER IDIQ at monkton.io/MATTER.

The Monkton Way: Mobilizing Care

Whether in the office or in the field, healthcare is always mission critical. Monkton offers secure, Edge-based solutions that streamline processes and deliver real-time data when and where it's needed, so healthcare providers can focus on what matters most—you.

Secure Mobility Transforms Clinician Workflows for Maximum Efficiency