Toughbook H1 Health Delivers 40 Percent Workflow Improvement
The Hospital Comarcal de Inca employs about 760 medical professionals, and meets the healthcare needs of approximately 114,000 people on the 
Spanish island of Majorca. In July of 2009, the hospital accessed the ability of mobile healthcare technology to improve clinician workflow and offer access to data at the point-of-care. At the heart of this study was the Panasonic Toughbook H1 Health, a mobile clinical assistant (MCA) based on Intel’s original MCA reference architecture.
For the study, two members of the nursing staff were equipped with Toughbook H1 Health MCA devices. The nurses were able to access the hospital’s information system as well as frequently consulted information. The Toughbook H1 Health was used in day-to-day care for a group of hospitalized patients and workflow was observed and measured repeatedly over the course of the study.
Prior to the deployment of the Toughbook H1 Health MCAs, observations and measurements were made of the nursing staff conducting the same procedures with a group of patients in the same areas of the hospital. This was done using conventional methods which included taking notes at bedside using pen and paper and later inputting data into the appropriate hospital information system.
After comparing the results, the hospital saw a dramatic improvement in workflow efficiency when using the Toughbook H1 Health. Perpetration time was eliminated; medication and note taking was cut approximately in half and water (or fluid) balancing time was cut by approximately one third. In total, the hospital saw a 40 percent reduction in the time its nurses used to conduct their daily work.
The full study is available for download on the Panasonic Computer Products Europe web site at the following link
