Launching the phone camera app that's helping home care providers track and monitor their patients with ease and security.
Home care, dental care and health centres began using the Lifecare Camera system in the summer of 2018 after the Lifecare Camera was trialled by 30 nurses and practical nurses in home care. Their experience with the system was so positive that a larger number of users was requested as soon as possible.
Application specialist, Nina Tähkäpää, from Espoo says that there will be around 300 home care users in the future. The number of regular and temporary clients in home care is approximately 1,500. In the future, the system will be used on a broader front, also in other areas.
'In the autumn, nurses began trialling the camera app in clients’ homes, including taking photos of wounds on the skin. In the integrated system, the images are transferred directly to the patient information system and employees do not need to save the images on their phone. This speeds up the work considerably,' stated Tähkäpää. 'The system itself is very easy and user-friendly, and it takes about 30 minutes to learn to use and doesn't require any extra equipment. The app is automatically downloaded to everyone's mobile phones through centralised app distribution.'
With Lifecare Camera, the user can log in with their own password to the patient information system, and no separate passwords are required. The work is faster when separate logins are not required.
Visual data supports care
User feedback has been very positive, and the reform has been highly anticipated. The clearest improvement is saving time and avoiding extra tasks – such as needing to connect the camera with a cable to a workstation, or manually downloading images for storage. The pictures taken of the patient are not saved on the mobile phone, which is good from a patient information security perspective.
When a picture has been sent, the nurse makes a note on the form and attaches the image as a link. If the nurse wants to consult a doctor, they can send a message to the doctor while still at home with the client. The image is transferred immediately and the doctor will receive the image by clicking on the link.
Tähkäpää looks forwards to the benefits of recording videos with the Lifecare Camera. This feature is to be put in place during the second half of 2018. 'District nurses who work in rehabilitation can monitor their own clients to see progress in walking or developing speech skills. This data would also be of great value to others participating in care,' stated Tähkäpää.
'It is often less effective to describe the patient’s condition and care with text than it is with an image. Documenting treatment with images is a clear improvement. The visual data created with Lifecare Camera is attached to the patient record, which means that treatment documentation becomes more informative and easier to understand,' stated Joona Pylkäs, Head of Imaging at Tieto. 'A patient record illustrated with images enables well-founded decisions that lead to better care. Particular attention has been paid to ensuring data protection in this solution. All communication between the mobile device and the cloud service is encrypted and no data is stored on the mobile device or in the cloud service when the data is saved.'