Mobile COACH

Handheld Patient Encounter Charting

Case workers save time by documenting patient encounters on handheld devices

The Challenge
As part of the Technology Opportunities Program, the Durham Community Health Network has the task of care managing a population of Medicaid patients. A mobile force of case and social workers visit patients in their homes for disease management. The case workers had to chart their encounters on paper forms and then transcribe the data into the web-based application back in their office. It was such a time consuming process that case workers often did not have time to sufficiently manage their case loads and perform data entry into the TOP application. Having timely patent encounter data available on the web is a critical necessity.

The Topsail Solution
Topsail built a handheld application that provides access to patient data in the field. The application also permits case workers to enter new Problems, Medications, Allergies, and to chart Encounters on the handheld device. When they return to their office, they "HotSync" and the data is uploaded into the database. Case workers love the system because they spend more time caring for patients instead of performing tedious and error prone data entry. Clinicians love the system because patient data is available sooner. The application runs on the Palm, Pocket PC's, and even the RIM Blackberry - thanks to innovative use of AvantGo technology.