Last Updated | August 30, 2022
Overview: Examples of quality improvement in healthcare using IOMT
You probably know about IoT but do you know about IoMT?
The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is all about the amalgamation of healthcare and technology. Hence, IoMT itself is how information technology is being leveraged to its maximum capacity to transform and revolutionize the future of healthcare services all over the world. Like all other industries, healthcare is constantly striving to perform better and improve the quality of care. Unlike all other industries, healthcare MUST keep improving and improvising because the future depends on it.
Quality Improvement in Healthcare is the specific framework used to systematically maximize or improve the level of care delivered to patients at healthcare facilities. All healthcare processes have certain tangible characteristics that make it possible to measure them, analyze them, control them, and most of all, improve them.
Technology is reshaping the healthcare industry and constantly striving to improve the quality of primary care whether we talk about nursing care, pediatrics, or even in the Intensive Care Unit. We are constantly integrating medical devices with healthcare app development services and solutions to minimize human error and maximize the quality of healthcare. There are so many IoT examples in healthcare and they are not just limited to medical devices. IoMT helps improve the patient’s comfort as well as convenience. It also helps provide security to both healthcare providers and patients. It further facilitates optimizing the healthcare environment with medical sensors, intelligent lighting, smart locks, digital signage and so much more.
How To Do a Quality Improvement Project in Healthcare by using IoMT?
Do you want to introduce technology into your healthcare practice but you aren’t sure how to go about it? Perhaps you are looking to implement a premium healthcare quality improvement project to maximize the quality of primary care in your healthcare facility or maybe you wish to further the efforts already being made. In either case, you are in just the right place.
In order to carry out your own QI project, you will have to take certain steps for your project to be eligible for 25 MOC part 4 credit points. Your requirements will depend on your project size as well as the size of your healthcare facility, for instance, do you have a small clinic with less than ten doctors or a bigger facility with more than 10? Both instances will have different checklists as well as standards for approval.
- Gather all the documentation and materials needed to be able to complete your application quickly and easily. This includes going through the application questions as well as checklists, and also standards for approval.
- Research and learn about the basics of Quality Improvement. Create a QI team that will be handling the project and implementing it.
- Go through different examples of QI projects like the ones mentioned in this article.
- Apply for credit by the 1st of December in any year.
- Finally, when you’re ready to apply, you have to pay a nominal processing fee per QI project and apply through your relevant online review and application system.
IoMT Quality Improvement Project Ideas in Primary Care
Ideally, your healthcare technology partners should be able to guide you on the quality improvement projects that will turn out to be the best option for you because every healthcare facility has different needs and priorities. An Emergency Care Center would have very different needs than an outpatient dental clinic or even a cosmetology clinic for that matter.
You could start with telemedicine if your healthcare facility allows it. Again, if you’re an Urgent Care Center, Telemedicine is of little to no use for you because they require a physical presence. This is why you need to get in touch with a good healthcare technology development company. Folio3 is a custom medical software development company with years of experience developing innovative solutions for the healthcare industry. It can guide you in a more comprehensive manner on which quality improvement projects to take on, and how to maximize the comfort and convenience of patients while also reducing costs and maximizing the efficiency of the practice.
In addition to these capacities, Folio3 can help optimize the UX design for healthcare systems. Keep in mind that a proper UX design will improve the convenience for healthcare providers as well.
Quality Improvement Project Examples: Iomt In Primary Care Paediatrics
- “Sustained Reduction in LOS for Neonates with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.”
This QI program, run by Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital won the 2015 Pediatric Quality Award in the Clinical Care category and also became the overall winner. The program significantly reduced the length of stay for newborn infants with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) by 70 percent. It also brought about a reduction in costs of more than $1.2 million.
- “Reduced Asthma Visits.”
This project included several QI steps along with modifications in documentation as well as assessment, improved the level of health education given to patients and their families by reinforcing care at home and facilitated providing patients who are high-risk with extended-length appointments. This program helped save $5.2 million in costs, and also brought about a 24% drop in asthma-related pediatric ER visits.
- “Reducing Radiation Exposure: Pediatric Modified Barium Swallow Studies.”
This project at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital had a very good outcome over the span of three years. It helped in reducing radiation exposure by more than 50% and also ensured that over 2000 minutes of staff exposure was prevented, which was a win for both patients as well as the healthcare facility without reducing diagnostic accuracy.
Quality Improvement Project Examples: Iomt In Primary Care Nursing
- “The Falls Management Program.”
This program for nursing homes is an example of long-term and short-term strategies to prevent and manage falls as well as fall-related injuries. The process includes the initial evaluation and monitoring of the patient or nursing home resident for the first 72 hours. It also includes a thorough investigation of the resident’s medical history, medications, as well as the circumstances where and when the fall took place, so as to prevent it from happening again. Lastly, for the program to work, it’s vital for the care facility staff and residents to be cooperative
- “Nurse-Led Telemedicine Clinics.”
Located in difficult-to-access areas with a dearth of healthcare facilities, nurse-led online clinics are and continue to be an excellent means of improving the quality of long-term healthcare. These clinics are run by nurses instead of doctors and the nurses provide comprehensive long-term care solutions for patients, greatly improving the quality of healthcare in these remote or difficult-to-access regions.
Quality Improvement Project Examples: Iomt In Intensive Care
- “Redesigning The ICU Nursing Discharge Process.”
This quality improvement project included the appointment of a change agent that helps in facilitating the nursing discharge process, developing and using a digital patient handover sheet to be more organized, asking for an estimated patient transfer time, and also the design and implementation of a daily digital discharge alert sheet for the ICU that has both the expected discharge date as well as the actual discharge date. Even though statistics showed that this project did not affect the in-patient mortality rate, it reduced the patient discharge delay by more than 3.2 hours, which is a notable time in the ICU and can help save a lot of costs.
- “The Tele-ICU.”
This project has especially been useful during the COVID-19 pandemic when people got restricted to their localities and homes very often, but they didn’t stop needing intensive care solutions. This brought about and showed a lot of potential for the virtual ICU. With access to EMR records, a visualization of the patients in need of critical care, and connected biomedical devices, these virtual ICUs actually decrease the mortality rate, improve patient outcomes, and save a lot of costs in the long run.
- “Nurse Assistant Robot.”
Nurse assistant robots have become increasingly rampant for monotonous tasks like providing medication and taking vitals. They can also be used in case of emergencies and for sounding codes and paging doctors and nurses. These robots can be assigned to ICU booths and rooms and greatly improve the quality of care and save resources and time. They can also communicate with the patients and help them feel much less alienated from the world, which helps counter mental health conditions like ICU psychosis.
The Interconnected IoMT Cloud and Health EcoSystem
Let’s say the healthcare ecosystem comprises primary care services, secondary care services, patients, pharmaceutical and life sciences companies, and payment systems. With the IoMT cloud, this means additional smart diagnostic tools, smart patient monitoring tools, electronic prescriptions, telemedicine, remote patient monitoring, vital signs monitoring, smart pill containers, smart beds, patient education, smart point-of-care testing, genomics data, virtual physiotherapy, and virtual intensive care.
Almost 75% of healthcare organizations in the world have taken advantage of and implemented IoT technologies. It has helped these companies save a huge amount of costs as well as maximize efficiencies and drastically improve the quality of healthcare. In order to fully understand and leverage the Internet of Medical Things, you have to get in touch with a good healthcare technology solutions and services company.
1. What types of organizations provide IOMT support to primary care practices?
Healthcare technology solutions and medical app development companies would be the ones who would able to offer primary care practices the best IoMT support and help them bring technology into their medical processes and practices. If we talk about Folio3, a medical app development company that offers innovative custom IoT-based healthcare solutions, they offer a multitude of IoMT-based solutions and services including but not limited to:
- Folio3 custom EHR/EMR software
- Folio3 EHR/EMR integration
- Folio3 telemedicine solution
- Folio3 HL7 integration solution
2. What are some IoMT Quality Improvement project NHS examples?
Connected inhalers are one project example. Like smart thermometers, they help asthmatic patients track their medication as well as the frequency of the onset of sudden asthma attacks. In the long run, they can even prove to lower the mortality rate in patients with asthma. QIot has recently introduced a smart inhaler that will be initially trialed in NHS, Scotland. Another example is virtual hospitals and wards that were trialed by the Northampton General NHS hospital and Trust, treating patients recovering from COVID-19 and also other chronically ill patients.
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