Intermec Technologies announces partnership with HealthWyse and Data Capture Solutions

Intermec Technologies (NYSE:IN) today announced its partnership with HealthWyse and Data Capture Solutions to provide healthcare professionals with access to electronic medical records anytime, anywhere. The durability of Intermec’s CN3 ruggedized handheld computers combined with the ease-of-use of Healthwyse’s mobile clinical software and Data Capture Solutions’ support has saved customers, like Caritas Home Care, an average of 98 hours of total annual time per healthcare professional.

“The consumer devices we had just couldn’t handle the intensity of the work environment. The amount of malfunctions we experienced substantially impacted productivity, morale and hardware costs”

Caritas Home Care, one of the first home care providers to use mobile medical software to record the care given and take notes at the point-of-care, recently installed the joint solution. IT managers wanted to leverage their investment in HealthWyse’s clinical and financial system – the first software of its kind available on PDAs – while upgrading their consumer-style PDAs that frequently broke down. PDA failures increased hardware costs and reduced mobile clinicians’ productivity because they caused mobile clinicians to take notes at the point-of-care, drive to the office to get a replacement device, and then enter their notes into the electronic medical records later. According to VDC Research, average annual failure rates for non-ruggedized handheld computers are 38 percent, compared to just 11 percent for ruggedized models.

HealthWyse, an Intermec independent software vendor (ISV), referred Caritas to Data Capture Solutions, an Intermec Premier value-added reseller (VAR) and specialist in integrating mobile solutions for healthcare that includes Total Care Services (helpdesk, software staging, cellular network activation and hot swap repair) to provide the healthcare institution the lowest possible cost of ownership. Because HealthWyse runs on PDAs and laptops, Caritas was able to run a lengthy field-test of various mobile devices before choosing the Intermec CN3. The rugged mobile handheld’s Wi-Fi®, Bluetooth® and WAN (3G CDMA/EV-DO or GSM/EDGE) radios provide mobile clinicians with immediate access to electronic medical records via the HealthWyse software. Its size improves patient record keeping because it’s small enough to be used at the point-of-care, so procedure codes, notes and other activity can be added to electronic medical records in real-time. Additionally, its ruggedness reduced hardware costs while improving mobile clinician productivity.

“The consumer devices we had just couldn’t handle the intensity of the work environment. The amount of malfunctions we experienced substantially impacted productivity, morale and hardware costs,” said Mark Jozwicki, IT manager at Caritas Home Care. “The CN3 has positively impacted our business operations and patient care, because it is a reliable device that provides connectivity with HealthWyse anytime, anywhere, allowing mobile clinicians to focus on the patient.”

Caritas also plans to leverage the CN3’s integrated video and still camera to capture and wirelessly transmit images and stream video to remote specialists who can make course-of-treatment recommendations to the on-site mobile clinician in real-time.

“The partnership between Intermec, HealthWyse and Data Capture Solutions allows healthcare professionals to spend less time troubleshooting technology issues and more time on patient care,” said Earl Thompson, senior vice president, Mobile Solutions Business Unit, Intermec. “Caritas Home Care projects that it will achieve a complete return on investment for the full deployment in less than one year due to clinician time savings, improved productivity, and reduced maintenance, support and spare costs.”