WALTHAM, Mass. — April 10, 2018 —
Mobile Heartbeat®, a leading provider of mobile healthcare enterprise solutions that improve clinical workflow and team communication, today announced that Freeman Health Systems in Joplin, Missouri, has signed an agreement to utilize the MH-CURE™ secure smartphone application in an extended pilot. Freeman Hospital West recently completed a successful 90-day pilot in its cardiology department.
“Within that brief timeframe, the MH-CURE platform helped us streamline communications, gaining across-the-board user acceptance,” said Leonard “Skip” Rollins, CIO at Freeman Health System. “When the pilot concluded, the nursing staff refused to go back to their old phones, creating quite a unique problem. We worked out a deal with Mobile Heartbeat to keep the loaner phones for a short period while we purchased new phones.”
Freeman’s nurses, nurse practitioners and physician assistants start their day by picking up a hospital-issued iPhone enabled with MH-CURE. With this phone, they can review patient information, look up a patient’s doctor or any other member of the patient’s care team and contact them directly, while the MH-CURE platform connects doctors’ personal devices to the hospital and staff. A nurse with a question about a test such as an electrocardiogram (EKG) can securely send the image or a text message to the doctor for his or her review, allowing them to use their phone offsite instead of needing their laptop to participate in the decision-making process.
“Every hospital department has unique clinical workflows that require a flexible and adaptable mobile communications solution,” said Ron Remy, CEO of Mobile Heartbeat. “The success that Freeman’s cardiology staff experienced with MH-CURE can be realized in all areas of its hospitals, ultimately leading to highly positive patient outcomes.”
“We have to be mindful from an IT perspective of how quickly hospital functions change so that we are driving new technology models,” added Rollins. “As far as our communications strategy, it makes sense to use technology that doctors and nurses are already comfortable with. Younger physicians, nurse practitioners and other clinicians took to the MH-CURE platform very quickly, but even less tech-savvy physicians were benefiting as they can focus on the face-to-face patient discussions while MH-CURE’s efficiency allows other clinicians to take care of the rest.”
About Freeman Health System
Locally owned, not-for-profit and nationally recognized, Freeman Health System includes Freeman Hospital West, Freeman Hospital East, Freeman Neosho Hospital and Ozark Center – the area’s largest provider of behavioral health services – as well as two urgent care clinics, dozens of physician clinics and a variety of specialty services.
In 2014, Freeman earned 90 individual awards for medical excellence and safety from CareChex®, a quality rating system that helps consumers evaluate healthcare providers. U.S. News & World Report ranked Freeman No. 1 Hospital in Southwest Missouri in 2014-15, and The Leapfrog Group gave Freeman the highest grade possible in the Fall 2014 – Spring 2015 Hospital Safety Score.
With more than 300 physicians on staff representing more than 60 specialties, Freeman provides cancer care, heart and vascular care, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopedics, children’s services and women’s services. Additionally, Freeman is the only Children’s Miracle Network Hospital in a 70-mile radius. For more information, visit: https://www.freemanhealth.com.