Technology is critical for mobile integrated healthcare (MIH) providers, who need connectivity in a range of environments. Reliable connectivity is essential for teams to provide acute care in a patient’s home, treat chronic disease in a mobile clinic, access real-time patient records in the field, remotely collaborate with a specialist, and maintain personnel accountability for responders’ safety.
The key to building your organization’s infrastructure is to understand your needs and implementation challenges.
MIH is Positioned to Optimize Tech
Health technology that decentralizes care away from health systems, providing patient-centered, convenient care real-time is a booming industry. From wearables to remote monitoring devices to handheld ultrasound, care providers have more ways than ever to monitor patients and check on them in their own homes or comfortable setting.
MIH teams are poised to apply this technology to improve quality and outcomes. Mobile care teams adapt to community needs, and technology only furthers their ability to provide personalized care. Community paramedics can provide acute care, preventive care, chronic disease management, and more, while working closely to coordinate care across health systems, clinics, providers, and other stakeholders in a patient’s care.
Telehealth and remote monitoring has the potential to engage populations in rural or remote areas or those who struggle to access care. However, patients need access to broadband internet, a device with video, and the technical knowledge to conduct a virtual visit. MIH teams can help bridge this gap by providing care and coordinating with specialists remotely. Through MIH, providers can expand their services and patients can receive enhanced acute and preventive care.
If you’re an MIH provider, here are some key questions to evaluate your MIH technology.
Understanding Your Operational Tech Needs
To bring this technology to patients and fill shortcomings patients may experience in access, MIH teams need to be equipped with the appropriate technology to meet both programmatic and community needs.
Start at the beginning. How do patients get to you? Determine what tech support is needed for patient referral, triage, and dispatch.
Then, identify the core services you provide to patients. Do you primarily perform well checks, take vital signs? Do you need to consult with advanced practitioners in real-time during patient visits? Are you guiding patients through video visits with specialists? As you detail out your scope of services, explore what resources are needed for effective patient assessment, provider communication, documentation and sharing of information – either real-time or after provision of care.
Consider the broadband connectivity in your service area. Are you transmitting patient information from the patient’s homes, or are you able to return to an office before sharing data?
Provider safety is another factor in addition to patient care. What kind of cell connection do your paramedics have when traveling through your service area? Do you need to ensure they have reliable two-way voice capability to the team’s base?
Answering these questions helps you determine whether you need technology to boost your cell signal, whether you need satellite links, or whether you need more bandwidth to run the technology you currently have.
Considering Implementation
You know that these core services rely on mobile broadband communications, but it’s critical to match your technology investment with your needs to properly justify and fund your program.
Connectivity Gap
How connected is your equipment across your service area? Some teams can meet their operational needs with a device connected to the local cell network or a hotspot on their smartphones, while others may need an external antenna to boost their ability to connect to broadband.
For example, in an urban area with strong cell connectivity, a connected iPad may be all you need to check on unhoused patients. However, the suburbs and rural areas have more dead zones. Those dead zones occur in areas where patients are also farther from hospitals and health centers.
You might need to partner to ensure your communications are prioritized. NAMIHP has partnered with First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority), the federal agency that oversees the buildout, deployment, and operation of FirstNet. FirstNet is a wireless broadband network built to keep first responders connected and communicating. From dead zones to congested areas, first responders benefit from FirstNet’s offering of priority and preemption. This makes first responders’ calls, texts, and data priority on the network.
Funding
Ensure you spend time evaluating the funding. Grant opportunities through the Health and Human Services (HHS), including agencies like the Health Services Resources Administration (HRSA) may be available for implementation of technologies. MIH teams are also finding partnerships with local health systems, provider groups, or community-based organizations can result in shared funding, and teams should ensure a plan for leveraging technology is included in these discussions.
Knowing your needs and ensuring your requests align with your needs – and not the latest technology on the market – will help you justify your requests.
Policy and Protocol
With new technology comes new processes and procedures. It’s best to thoroughly discuss and document these policies with all internal stakeholders at implementation. Policies need to consider HIPAA compliance, use of mobile and other tech devices, and guidance for using telehealth systems when interacting with patients and advanced providers.
Also, consider consistent protocols, particularly for patient assessments and the resulting documentation. Technology and the systems utilized should support patient care and create improved outcomes and better experiences, not increase friction or create extra work for care providers. Policies and procedures can help guide routines around patient care, as well as the how, when, and what to document.
Systems Integration
Most organizations have tech stacks that involve software and devices from a range of vendors. Yet, all those tools need to talk with each other to allow for seamless data sharing. When evaluating your options, ensure that the products integrate with your local health system or partner facilities’ electronic medical records. Remember to ask questions about costs associated with integration or data migration.
These tools also need to support effective data analysis. An integrated suite of technology products should optimize care coordination and improve patient-centered decision making.
Where To Begin
Everyone understands that technology is not only expensive, but also essential. Thinking through your clinical operations needs and implementation considerations will help you make the right decisions for your organization.
Onsite IT staff is the best resource to understand how to choose vendors and develop policies and procedures around technology. If you partner with a local health system, their staff may be able to support your efforts.
If you’re feeling alone in this, NAMIHP has partnered with the FirstNet Authority, who specializes in features and support for public safety operations and is the only nationwide wireless network with oversight from the federal government.
An organization like FirstNet can also provide guidance in understanding and defining your team’s technology needs. FirstNet is a wireless broadband network built to keep responders connected and communicating wherever the need arises.
Join the conversation
NAMIHP and FirstNet Authority are co-hosting a Technology Check Workshop at the MIH Summit Tech and Prep on February 16-18 in Tampa, Florida. Join this session to help you level up your connectivity and access. This 2-hour workshop features expert speakers from the fire industry, health system perspective, and FirstNet Authority. Speakers will share lessons learned for supporting our nation’s mobile integrated healthcare teams and leveraging public safety broadband.
For MIH leaders, this session will support understanding of tech-driven expansion, connectivity solutions, and overcoming barriers to access.
To get more involved with advancing MIH technology and NAMIHP, contact us at office@namihp.org Additionally, you can email Jon.Olson@FirstNet.gov to start the conversation about how the FirstNet Authority can support your mobile communication needs.