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Lattice® MediCopia® Overview
Lattice provides a robust integrated mobile computing solution that allows hospitals to seamlessly integrate patient care and productivity tracking. These inherently smart applications streamline patient care, bringing error reduction, speed, and efficiency to care giving.
Lattice’s MediCopia product is designed to achieve the following objectives:
- Elimination of preventable misidentification errors
- Process improvement
- Productivity improvement
MediCopia is a unique system that provides for inpatient care giving. This automated information system is based on the integration of seven technologies in one compact handheld computing device. These seven technologies are a handheld computer or laptop (for work order processing), a bar code scanner (for positive patient identification), a portable thermal label printer (for label generation at the bedside), and an integrated wireless radio (for real time data transmission), mobile software applications, interface software with host systems (hospital information system, laboratory information system, blood bank system, etc.), and a patient wristband containing a barcode or an RFID tag.
Advanced Connectivity
MediCopia is a client/server transaction processing system based upon a flexible architecture that interfaces with legacy systems in the hospital. MediCopia provides real time wireless transmission of doctor’s orders, patient information, and caregiver data from host systems to mobile client computers. MediCopia also provides real time wireless transmission of transactions applied on mobile computers by caregivers working at the bedside. MediCopia is architected as a ‘smart client’ to eliminate the requirement for a network connection, and simplify the process of applying software updates. As a smart client, MediCopia can be used in real-time wireless mode or in ‘batch mode’, thereby permitting deployment to facilities that have not implemented wireless networks. For wireless campuses, the smart client approach eliminates the impact of the all-too-common dead-spots in wireless networks, because caregivers do not experience downtime in dead zones, and MediCopia automatically reconnects upon entering a wireless hotspot. The smart client approach also provides a backup plan in the event the wireless network experiences downtime, because users can merely place their mobile computers in docking stations allowing MediCopia to automatically synchronize obtaining new orders and updating host systems with completed transactions. Hospitals that have not deployed wireless networks don’t have to wait to implement positive patient identification, and moving to wireless is a simple configuration change, because a single version of the MediCopia client software supports both batch-mode and wireless real-time. When a wireless network is deployed, there are costs or effort required to use MediCopia in real-time.
Architecture
The basic architecture of the MediCopia system includes a server to host the database, interfaces to legacy systems, remote clients, and a network to distribute transactions from the MediCopia server to the MediCopia clients. The architecture of the MediCopia system is designed with significant flexibility that provides the following features, among others:
- Support for multiple client platforms including desktops, laptops (computers-on-wheels), and handhelds.
- Support for different handheld platforms including the Intermec CN3, the Symbol MC70, and the Symbol PPT8846.
- Multi-facility support where orders from physicians in multiple hospitals are contained in a single database and distributed to clients at various locations
- Multi-host support where orders from various host systems are normalized into a single database
- Stat order messaging to notify caregivers of urgent orders
- Paging support to provide a separate, redundant notification system.
- System administration using a browser interface for simple access from any node on the intranet
- Infrastructure to push MediCopia updates out to mobile clients eliminating the requirement to locate client computers, where decisions to update are controlled by system administrators rather than end-users.
- Standard HL7 interfaces
- Cost effective SQL Server database
- Elimination of network latency inherent in browser-based applications
Benefits
This architecture provides the capability to lower costs, improve efficiency and eliminate preventable medical errors. The benefits of implementing MediCopia’s mobile computing application are dramatic increases in patient safety, improved workflow, higher patient census, and an increased competitive advantage. Other benefits may also be realized:
- Compliance with regulatory requirements
- Improving patient safety
- Improving patient satisfaction
- Improving caregiver morale
- Automating the process of completing orders
- Enhancing documentation of transaction
- Accurately accounting for billing of services rendered
- Fostering communication between caregivers
- Improving data collection processes
- Reducing paperwork
- Reducing administrative costs
- Allowing faster adaptation to host system changes
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