How Do I Get to the App Store?

A friend of mine is a photographer and he works with Photoshop nearly every day. Like many people, he’s very savvy with the functions he uses all the time. Tackling out-of-the-ordinary requests, however (Can you remove the maid of honor’s now ex-boyfriend from the photo?), requires a bit of a learning curve.

I’ve heard from several organizations that one of their biggest challenges to rolling out encrypted smartphone texting at their facility is device support. Users know some of their phone functions very well, but they aren’t familiar with other features. Even in a bring-your-own-device scenario, one of the common questions is (believe it or not): How do I get to the app store? If you’ve also wondered this, you are in good company with nurses, administrators, environmental services staff, and yes, physicians, too. 

On the desktop of your phone you will see one of the following icons (listed alphabetically). They represent the applications store for that device. Getting the process rolling only requires the tip of your finger – touch the icon on your phone and enter. Search features allow you to find applications by name or by function, just like browsing the Internet, and then you can touch them for more information or to download. Happy shopping! 

Android’s Play Store



Apple Mac App Store



BlackBerry App World

P.S. To find our secure texting app, search for ‘Amcom’ and you will find us:

Healthcare Is a Team Sport

I recently read an interview with Emory Healthcare’s CEO John Fox in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. The bulk of the piece centered on effectively changing the hospital culture to improve quality, and then one sentence jumped right out at me: “Healthcare is a team sport.” Mr. Fox was speaking about a team of people, of course, but this also includes supporting technology – team players can significantly improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare.

If you think about a typical visit to the hospital, there are a plethora of systems that get touched from the moment a patient enters the hospital doors until well after he or she leaves. If I were team captain, I would want all of my players to talk with one another and coordinate their efforts. Can the admitting hospitalist on duty be reached quickly for a consultation? Do lab test results automatically update in a patient’s EMR? How about you? Do your communication systems and technologies act like team players to support and improve the game of your staff?

A Resolution for the New Year

Hospitals and healthcare systems across the country are struggling to increase care quality, employee engagement, and patient satisfaction while simultaneously reducing costs. An article in the Journal of Healthcare Management estimated some of the costs associated with poor communications in healthcare. I was shocked at the numbers:

•  U.S. hospitals waste over $12 billion annually from communication inefficiencies among care providers
• Increase in length of stay accounts for 53 percent of that annual economic burden

• A 500-bed hospital loses over $4 million annually as a result of communication inefficiences  

Improving communications is a great opportunity to make strides on quality, satisfaction and cost initiatives. How about a New Year’s resolution to:

• Help providers connect quickly using mobile communications 
• Improve the quality of care by ensuring efficient communication of radiology and lab results to ordering physicians
• Increase patient satisfaction with faster responses and a quieter environment 

Here are success stories from Lake Norman Regional and others to serve as inspiration!