NZ healthcare sector going mobile

Healthcare of New Zealand Holdings (HHL) will trial the use of mobile technology from Kinross Group to enhance services for registered health professionals.

The move comes as the healthcare sector continues to be under pressure to cut costs and improve services at the point of delivery.

According to Kinross, mobile technology is making this a reality and proving beneficial to healthcare professionals, who spend a lot of time out in the community.

The company says its mobile software platform will enable HHL's thousands of New Zealand healthcare professionals to capture data on tablet devices in real time.

"Healthcare professionals are busy people, who naturally want to spend more time with their clients, not laboriously filling out forms by hand," says HHL group manager, Strategic Business Improvement, Jan Hilder.

"We could see that we had a problem in the way that we gathered data, and how this was stretching our staff, so decided to go mobile with AMS," she says.

Hilder says some education and training was required to get HHL's healthcare professionals up and running on the new technology.

"There was some concern around security and privacy of information, which was quickly allayed by the knowledge that AMS is hosted in New Zealand," Hilder explains.

"In addition we have wrapped the AMS application inside a MobileIron layer which also ensures complete security for the device" she says.

Hilder says some of HHL healthcare professionals thought that the technology might be a barrier when working with clients, but in fact, it has been a bridge.

"By adopting AMS, HHL healthcare professionals will be able to access and complete forms while consulting with clients; agree a service plan; and obtain immediate client verification and consent," she explains.

"This will revolutionise the way HHL healthcare professionals are able to engage with clients," says Hilder.

In due course, Hilder says HHL plans to expand the software solution across the organisation, equipping all their healthcare professionals with tablet devices.

Kinross Group works with public and private sector organisations in New Zealand and overseas.

"We feel incredibly fortunate to be working so closely with HHL, a company whose values, integrity and pioneering spirit so closely reflect our own," Kinross Group Director, Ruth Bruce adds.