Tablet Computers

The following sections describe various organization's experiences in using Tablet Computers.

We have a few midlevel providers that are using tablets or laptops with success, most notable Physician Assistants (PAs) that round for the cardiologists and anesthesiologists. Most of our physicians use either COWS, PDAs or the fixed thin clients/workstations. Even with a much improved wireless network, our nursing staff who does ALL their documentation in the computer have NOT found these devices to be very useful. Nonetheless, we have several hundred tablets deployed since we try to offer all possible access solutions to our users. We have docking/charging areas on every floor and nursing staff monitors that the units are being charged regularly. They much rather use the thin clients and workstations we have deployed in or near virtually every patient room. At another site, they have hundreds of laptops in use by the nursing staff who prefer them to the Computers on Wheels (COWS).

We haven't had a problem with theft. Our devices ONLY work in house and each is labeled clearly. We have been very fortunate in all of our audits that we have not "lost" any.

Battery life has been up to 6-8 hours if you get the second battery instead of the CD reader. As far as battery maintenance, be careful. Different batteries have different needs. Some need to be allowed to run down, some do not.

We learned a hard lesson when we left laptops attached to the charger at nurse server work stations. They were not allowed to run down, and we were not aware that they needed to. A doc unplugged one to take to a critical patient during a "near code" assuming that since it was plugged in it would be fully charged, and the battery died in less than a minute, and he got a second one and the same thing occurred.

We now have an IS team that rounds and checks batteries.

The overwhelming consensus of physician users in the Spyglass survey was that tablets were not useful in in-patient practice for most physicians surveyed due to:

large size

too heavy weight

limited portability

short battery life

dropped connections wireless connections.

In controlled outpatient environments the numbers reversed and physicians loved them; but not so in the ER where the issues raised in inpatient use were if anything worse.