Mobile Heartbeat provides comprehensive solution to clinicians’ communication needs

This post is sponsored by Sprint and is the eighth article in a 12-part series on mobilizing healthcare for improved communication. 

Buying a smartphone just to make calls and send text messages is like purchasing a laptop just to use the word processor.1 So says Jamie Brasseal, vice president of sales and marketing for Mobile Heartbeat, a company that takes full advantage of the functionality of a smartphone to improve clinical workflow and team communications in the healthcare setting.

The primary function of Mobile Heartbeat’s solution is to mobilize clinicians by providing urgent provider-to-provider communication, Brasseal said. It is integrated with electronic medical records systems, he said, linking pertinent patient data to provider smartphones.

One of the product’s most important features – which Brasseal said is unique to Mobile Heartbeat – is its ability to present caregivers with patient-specific data. The current model of manual communication among the care team can be a difficult and time-consuming process, he said. “We present the care team for any given patient on the smartphone,” Brasseal said, and enable providers to communicate with each other urgently.

Mobile Heartbeat is updated dynamically – in real time – as caregivers come on and off shifts, Brasseal said. “It’s something that’s never existed before,” he said. “We’re the first ones to present it in a way that’s patient specific and dynamic.”

The solution also integrates into the nurse call system, Brasseal said. It can send push alerts and alarms to the right caregiver – with the necessary patient information – so they can respond appropriately, he said. “We’re providing the ability to not only get the alarm,” Brasseal said, “but then do something with it, action it in a way that provides better patient care.”

Other Mobile Heartbeat features include:

• HIPAA-compliant text messaging
• Integration into laboratory systems, so providers get results sent directly to their smartphones
• Camera technology that enables providers to take photographs and save them to the EMR
• Scanning of consumables inside emergency departments that might otherwise not be charged, such as bandages

Mobile Heartbeat, which is designed for physicians and nurses, works both inside and outside of the hospital or healthcare setting, Brasseal said. While many solutions are specific to one setting or the other, he said, Mobile Heartbeat functions inside hospitals on devices shared by nurses and outside the hospital on physicians’ personal smartphones. “Physicians and nurses need to talk to each other,” Brasseal said, and to see the same patient information at the same time.

The company has gone through rigorous security checks to ensure its solution is HIPAA compliant, Brasseal said. The cloud-based service offers security around protected health information, he said.

Mobile Heartbeat is already installed in the Hospital Corporation of America, the largest healthcare organization in the country, and at Yale New Haven Health System.

Read the earlier articles in this series:

The value of communication coordination among the care team

What are the best ways to handle care transitions?

The communication pitfalls of multidisciplinary approaches to treating patients

The five worst things about being a doctor (from a tech perspective)

5 best smartphone advances for doctors in the past 5 years

The pros and cons of BYOD (bring your own device)

The problems with charging racks and shared computers in hospitals

                                                                                                                                                 

1. Jamie Brasseal granted permission for all of his direct quotes and indirect quotes to be used in this article. Interview date: Feb. 5, 2015.