LocumLife - September 2008 - (Page 11)

Unplugged Going wireless not only brings healthcare delivery into the 21st century, but it helps locum tenens providers stay connected while on the road. Anne Baye Ericksen T hink back 20 years when the thought of booking airline flights via a home computer was simply inconceivable because the Internet had yet to permeate our everyday lives. Fifteen years ago, a mobile phone was still wired into an automobile and provided limited reception. Even 10 years ago, most cell phones only sent and received voice calls. Today, we are a tech-oriented society. Much of our daily activities—personal and professional— involve the use of some form of computer or wireless technology. Luckily, locum tenens professionals have the advantage of gaining exposure to a number of different computer systems and software applications with each opportunity they accept. And thanks to instant messaging, texting, streaming video, and e-mails, it has never been easier to stay connected with the home front. Read on to see how three locum tenens physicians—one of whom utilizes contingent staffing in his own practice—tap into state-of-the-art technology to enhance their careers. THE FUTURE IS NOW In the healthcare arena, it is not unusual to find laptop computers in the operating room (OR) or at the bedside, with electronic charting, medication ordering and tracking systems, and online billing in wide use. Indeed, countless acute care hospitals now supply patients with bar-coded identification bracelets that are scanned for each test and medication dosage to reduce the possibility of error as well as to capture charges instantaneously. Another technological advance gaining in popularity is teleradiology, enabling radiologists to read images on their computer screens even when they are thousands of miles from the practice environment. As many locum tenens radiologists are aware, this capability opens up services to remotely located facilities that cannot afford onsite labs and supplies personnel to hospitals dealing with staffing shortages. Other telemedicine applications use a network to connect permanent and temporary physicians with specialists for real time consults on complex cases. Perhaps one of the more evident examples of technology at its most effective is found in high acuity areas, such as the emergency department (ED), intensive care units, or operating rooms, where all types of monitors track patients’ conditions. BUSINESS AS USUAL “Everything is moving toward the wireless format,” observes anesthesiologist Johnathan Isom, MD, MBA, part of a seven-member private group practice in the Midwest who secures locum tenens physicians and certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) through Huntsville, Alabama-based John Daniel Staffing Group. “For example, when we transport people from a critical care unit to the OR, we simply plug the monitors into a transport battery pack and take them with us. Once in the surgical suite, we connect the monitors directly into the anesthesia machine. “Another prime example is the pulse oximeter that tracks oxygen saturation through a fingertip SEPTEMBER 2008 LocumLife 11

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of LocumLife - September 2008

LocumLife - September 2008 Editorial Contents From Nalto Stat! Dynamics The Net Last-Minute Luxury Unplugged Going Wireless on the Road Getting Oriented Advertiser Index Opportunities Direct Destinations On Location Contest Rules Anyone's Guess La Vita Locum

LocumLife - September 2008

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