Bayfront Health System Goes Wireless with MercuryMD

MercuryMD Inc., a software company that supports mobile devices for hospitals, has added a 48th health system, Bayfront Health System, to its list of clients.

The companys Mdata Enterprise System allows physicians to use handheld devices to access patient data wirelessly. Physicians can also use other wireless devices to access information securely when off campus. Mdata was rolled out nationally in 2002 to provide a way to transfer information from existing systems into wireless devices.

John McLendon, vice president and CIO of Bayfront Health System, in St. Petersburg, Fla., said the software will save physicians time and improve their workflow. Mdata Enterprise will access data from an existing Cerner Millennium system, he said, and provide immediate access to critical results.

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Lisa Roth, manager of clinical informatics at Bayfront, said MercuryMDs system was selected after “what seemed like an inordinate amount of due diligence, but we felt it was necessary given the newness of this technology and the way it would interact with our physicians and current technical environment.” She added that MercuryMD had been ranked “Best in KLAS” in the 2003 Year-End KLAS Vendor Report in the Specialty Niche category. More than 120 hospitals use the system, which supports both Palm OS and Pocket PC applications.

Recent research shows that physicians are becoming more comfortable with handheld computers, and that about half of the physician community will use handhelds this year. One advantage of MercuryMDs systems is that they can also provide data through sophisticated cell phones, which according to some experts are easing out heavier tablets.

/zimages/3/28571.gifClick hereto read about this research about physicians and handhelds.

Several companies and health care systems have implemented wireless systems to give providers easier access to information. For example, Norton Healthcare in Kentucky uses Cingulars Xpress Mail service with a BlackBerry device from Research in Motion, and Drfirst Inc. has partnered with Kaiser Permanente and Sprint.

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