Our conservative estimate is that we can reduce one admission in 20 by one day. If so, private hospitals can pay for their wireless network and application in 1.7 years.
US research shows that bedside electronic prescribing will reduce admissions by an average of 0.8 days.
A point-of-care-IT product like Healthspring has been shown in Australian hospitals to reduce test orders by 10% - the amount of unintentional duplicate orders.
We estimate that electronic receipt of orders will achieve a further 10% reduction of laboratory costs – as well as improving safety through confirming the receipt of results by clinicians.
Handheld wireless computing for all health workers is a low-cost reality now. For clinicians, it can speed their work, improve quality and improve safety ... now.
Its acceptance and use by clinicians will be different from that of a PC. It will reduce costs.
