Clinical guidelines are essential to modern healthcare. They translate research into practice, inform policy decisions, increase quality of care and improve patient outcomes. Without evidence-based, thoroughly reviewed and updated guidelines, Australia’s clinicians, patients and healthcare professionals wouldn’t be able to make the right health-related choices.
As electronic health records (EHR) software continues to support the digital storage of patient information and medication histories, Australian providers are searching for devices that support the automation of their clinical operations. With 237 available EHR software options available globally today, healthcare organisations have no shortage of ways to digitise their workflows.
To aid in EHR efforts, Brother is proud to offer a range of products validated by Cerner. This article will examine the state of ever-evolving healthcare guidelines and showcase how Brother Cerner-certified printing and scanning solutions can help your workforce and patients stay on top of the latest information.
The importance of updated clinical guidelines
In order to effectively and compliantly deliver care to your patients in line with industry standards, your staff must adhere to strict regulations.
According to the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) — the Australian government’s main authority responsible for medical research — there are nine key standards that all clinical guidelines should meet:
- Be relevant and useful
- Be transparent
- Be overseen by a guideline development group
- Identify and manage conflicts of interest
- Be focused on health and related outcomes
- Be evidence informed
- Make actionable recommendations
- Be up-to-date
- Be accessible
However, research indicates that the majority of clinical guidelines may miss the mark. One study of nearly 700 guidelines found in two of the world’s foremost medical research databases reveals that 66% of them aren’t systematically reviewed, as should be best practice.
So what’s holding the process back from seeing these standards upheld? Access to the relevant information — alongside the sheer volume of data available to sort through — are factors limiting regulatory compliance. But can health service providers afford to be noncompliant and remain viable?
As part of Australia’s recent National Digital Health Strategy survey, 88 per cent of participants indicated they want digital access to their personal health information. For healthcare providers, now is the time to iron out regulatory compliance aligned with an effective EHR infrastructure.
Brother devices are compatible with EHR software systems that can be integrated
with Cerner Corporation applicationsUnderstanding guideline challenges
The greatest challenge facing adherence to healthcare guidelines is the accessibility of the information itself. Having to read through a 140-page document to find an answer is an arduous manual process that takes away from your workforce’s ability to be productive.
Questions surrounding the accessibility and trustworthiness of Australia’s clinical guidelines have even prompted the NHMRC itself to release a report on the matter. The findings determined that concerns over quality, a lack of information technology and obsolescence were holding Australia’s healthcare organisations back. This paper identified several challenges that were later corroborated by researchers who identified the importance of getting updated information out in a timely and accessible manner.
Simply put, it’s difficult for your organisation to systematically review guidelines because of the sheer quantity of research available — not to mention the resources required to synthesise that research. In order to deliver the greatest quality of care for your patients, your workforce needs quick access to trustworthy, updated guidelines.
This is a problem that information technologies can help resolve. The research-intensive nature of policy retrieval can be streamlined by transitioning your paper-based guidelines to a digital platform. Once your guidelines are uploaded to a cloud-based architecture they can easily be searched, accessed and updated.
But before your organisation can reach that point, you’ll need the tools to digitise and optimise this process. Brother devices are compatible with EHR software systems that can be integrated with Cerner Corporation applications, ensuring compliance and security for patient record access, scanning and printing.
Simplifying the process with scanning technology
Brother offers a range of high-speed scanners designed to offer fast digitisation of your medical industry guidelines. Devices like the Desktop Document Scanner ADS-4900W have a user-friendly interface, large intuitive touchscreens and one-touch scanning that can begin transforming your paper-based documents effortlessly. You can even create custom shortcuts to save time and take the pain out of the scanning process.
Today’s high-speed scanners interface with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software that can accelerate the synthesis process to even greater degrees. The auto image resolution feature on many Brother models captures any paper-based text — as well as imagery and handwritten notes — to perfection so that you don’t have to track down your old paper records to validate scanned information. This greatly accelerates the data extraction process, speeds up workflows and reduces the risk of error in the long run.
Once scanned, your workforce will have access to a searchable PDF so that guidelines can be found quickly and easily with the input of relevant keywords. Your documents also have the ability to be edited in this format, allowing any new guidelines or added regulations to be updated on your digital documents effortlessly.
Now that your documents have been digitised, all of your healthcare professionals can easily access guidelines, protocols and best practices when and where they need them to inform patient care. With the rise of remote patient monitoring (RPM), even off-premises staff can double-check regulatory compliance when needed. To confirm that your policies are updated and accurate, your clinicians and staff can search for documents by date to ensure they’re accessing the latest versions of essential documents.
Brother offers a range of high speed scanners designed to offer fast digitisation
of your medical industry guidelinesKeeping your healthcare facility fully updated with printing solutions
Have you ever walked by a healthcare practitioner’s office and noticed an outdated policy posted on their wall? Thanks to the efficiency of today’s multi-function centres (MFCs), printing the latest versions of your cloud-based guidelines is easier than ever.
Brother devices like the Multi-Function Printer MFC-L6700DW provide exceptional value and the ability to print off updated guidelines in high volumes so that you can update every piece of documentation in your facility with ease.
By deploying mobile printing solutions like the Portable Printer PJ-883 Bundle-Pack, you can even equip your workforce with on-the-go devices that can move anywhere a new print is needed. Providing portable printers increases efficiency and saves your workers the time it would take to return to your administrative hub to retrieve copies of the latest policy changes.
Brother is proud to support innovative healthcare services across Australia. The Royal Flying Doctor Service is a unique aeromedical organisation that provides 24-hour emergency service to people across the 7.69 million square kilometres of Australia. Since they don’t have access to regular office equipment, they rely on the durability of portable devices like Brother’s A4 Thermal Mobile Printers.
Your workforce relies on access to the latest clinical guidelines. Brother’s print and scan technologies make it easy to take this essential information to your connected online platforms. By deploying the devices that facilitate this digital transformation, you’ll ensure streamlined access and visibility into the regulatory data that is so important to your patient outcomes.
At Brother, we work with clinical software experts to ensure that our extensive range of printers and scanners meet the requirements set by healthcare ISV (Independent Software Vendors). Selected devices are compatible with Meditech and have been certified to integrate with Cerner Corporation applications.
Brother is proud to partner with today’s healthcare providers by offering the latest digital technologies as part of our at your side philosophy. To learn more about how our document management services can enrich your digital records infrastructure, contact Brother today.
