Ambulance company using Surface Pro

[jonathanrn]

An ambulance crew dropped off a patient on my unit last night and to my surprise he was charting on a Surface Pro. He said he liked it. Unfortunately, they use an old-fashioned windowed application with non-touch-centric UI elements. It had a pretty thick case on it with single handhold on the back. He used a stylus to navigate and I used it to electronically sign for the patient. Anyway, just wanted to share.

 

[hopmedic]

As a former paramedic, it doesn't surprise me that this has come. I left EMS in 2000, so well before computers in the backs of ambulances, but man, I would have loved to have one. I wonder if writing an application for this would be worth my while, being a solo developer.... Whether the HIPPA and other laws would require some sort of certification, or what...

 

[jonathanrn]

I've been pulling out my hair with the poorly designed electronic medical record (EMR) programs. They range from "meh" to "AWFUL!!!". I am seriously considering finding a job with a EMR company as a consultant and cutting my hours down at the bedside.

I'm by no means an expert on HIPPA compliance from developer standpoint, but there are online resources and classes you can take to understand what the requirements are.

http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/index.html

 

[Masaaki-MtOlympus]

I chose and bought Surface Pro 2, exactly for the HIPAA compliance reason. My institution started to reinforce the encryption rules a few months ago, and everybody in the building needed to make sure portable devices (laptops, tablets, external hard drives, USB thumb drives) have data encryption. Un-encrypted devices are not allowed to bring in the building regardless the device is personally owned or institute owned. IT support department took a lot of laptops and hard drives from employees, and installed encryption software like Bitlocker. For those having thumb drives in their pocket, they suggested to throw them away, and instead, the institution offered a free 4GB thumb drive that comes with Kingston encryption software to every employee. It's a big PITA, but violation of HIPAA is too costly for the institution, so everybody needs to swallow somehow. I had an old laptop personally owned, and used at work, but I had to upgrade either to Win 7 ultimate or Win 8 Pro to be able to use Bitlocker. So, it was a time to replace the laptop anyway, and chose SP2, activate Bitlocker, smooth sailing.
Currently, my institution didn't reinforce the encryption for smartphones, which doesn't make sense, but understandable for the massive work load of IT department to take care of all the smartphone in the institution. I'm pretty sure 2014 is the year, all the smartphones need to be HIPAA compliant regardless of iOS, Android, or Windows phone. Obviously, I replaced my Android phones with Windows phone for this reason, since it seems much easier to install layers of security for the WP.

 

[Dick99999]

Encryption is one part of the equation. I am curious what password or what encryption key policy the IT department dictates.