From monitoring patient vitals, to keeping tabs on physical therapy and dietary habits, leveraging smartphones for patient care has been the key theme for the past decade. What if the camera of a smartphone was utilized in a way that would be both HIPAA compliant and integrate closely with the EMR? This is an idea that the QliqSOFT engineers have been considering for some time.The value of a smartphone camera in patient care is enormous, lest clinicians have to worry about HIPAA compliance and mixing with personal images in their camera rolls. What is not captured by imaging systems in healthcare can be captured by a clinician with the camera in hand --- a wound, the face and anything on the body visible that can help in diagnosis and care coordination. In outpatient settings, a physical therapist can capture the movements of the patient which can enable orthopedic doctor to diagnose the problem quickly. More importantly such images when they are uploaded to the EMR and matched against a patient’s chart, they improve patient’s longitudinal care.
Introducing a HIPAA Compliant Camera for Smartphones
The HIPAA Camera Roll, as an integrated part of Qliq Secure Texting Service, can add additional benefit of sharing the images with care team members in real-time. When these images are part of a patient’s CareChannel, they improve further the care coordination for value based-care and bundled payments.The HIPAA Camera Roll makes it possible to use personal smartphones, thereby bolstering BYOD policies that many healthcare organizations prefer in this day and age of constant recycling of smartphones.
How does the HIPAA Camera Roll work?
To upload images to the EMR, select the file that you wish to upload, then select menu or share buttons and then “Upload to EMR” A search screen will appear, allowing you to locate the appropriate patient by last name, first name, MRN or Admission ID. Select the correct patient from the search results. Age and Gender are provided to help correctly identify the patient among those with similar names. Next, select the type of file that you are uploading by either typing or selecting from the predetermined list. Then tag the file with the appropriate descriptive text. These steps will help in identifying the file in the EMR.Before uploading, make sure that the file is meant for that particular patient. If you have selected the wrong patient by accident, you can easily go back, search and select another patient, then repeat the steps. Finally, select “upload” to complete the process. A success message will appear once the file has been successfully uploaded to the EMR.[youtube]https://youtu.be/B5D8uFaZpGw[/youtube]To test drive Qliq Secure Texting, Click Here.
