As independent, outpatient medical practices have become part of integrated health systems, networks have struggled to establish standardized processes. This is a problem. Simply put, disconnected processes and devices at the point of care can have a big impact on costs and outcomes.
Manual vitals acquisition alone produces wasted time that can cost up to $1,600 per year per medical assistant. For health systems with hundreds of medical assistants, those costs add up—and the impact on clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction can be even greater.
Studies have also shown that manual data transcription produces a 6.5 percent rate of error on average. Assuming a caregiver sees 20 patients a day, that’s eight errors just capturing vitals.
