A patient and a doctor at the hospital bedside with a tablet and a smartphone
© Bundeswehr / Thilo Pulpanek

Care app for military hospitals

The innovative care app for Bundeswehr hospitals serves two important purposes: it reduces pressure on staff and improves the quality of care. Patient requests can be booked and prioritised more efficiently, which makes the care process more structured and smoother.

 

Care staff in hospitals are chronically overworked. They only spend 15 per cent of their time actually looking after patients. Their remaining working hours are spent doing administrative work, moving around the hospital, coordinating processes and taking care of a million other things that need done. Military hospitals have more surgical beds than clinics for civil use do, and the average age of their patients is considerably lower. Digital solutions provide a useful opportunity to manage administrative tasks more effectively and free up resources for actual care work.

An innovative care solution

The Bundeswehr Cyber Innovation Hub has tested a mobile app for communication between care staff and patients at the urology department of the Bundeswehr hospital in Berlin. This innovative solution is designed to improve the quality of care provided to patients at military hospitals significantly and ease the pressure on staff working there.

Using the app, patients can share their concrete needs with the carers. This makes it possible to make specific to-do lists and record patient requirements in a prioritised and structured way – a big step up from the patient call bell. It also reduces time spent walking through the hospital, as patients can communicate their exact needs directly, allowing staff to work through their list of tasks systematically.

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A nurse walks up to a patient with smartphone and tablet in hand.
The care app makes work in the Bundeswehr hospitals easier
© Bundeswehr / Thilo Pulpanek
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A smartphone and a tablet lie on a table and the care app is displayed on them.
The care app makes work in the Bundeswehr hospitals easier
© Bundeswehr / Thilo Pulpanek
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Nurse shows patient the care app.
The care app makes work in the Bundeswehr hospitals easier
© Bundeswehr / Thilo Pulpanek
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Patient holds tablet with care app and nurse explains it to him.
The care app makes work in the Bundeswehr hospitals easier
© Bundeswehr / Thilo Pulpanek
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Simple and efficient

Simplifying patient communication also reduces the complexity of care work and clinical processes, effectively easing the pressure on care staff.

The innovation project took place over the course of six months in collaboration with the urology department of the Berlin Bundeswehr hospital. The team used a commercially available, market-ready product. It has been certified for IT security and data privacy and is already used successfully in various non-military hospitals. Having tested the software on conventional tablets and smartphones, the Bundeswehr plans to roll out the care app in additional hospitals.

Less time spent walking, more time for care

Once the hospital staff had familiarised themselves with the new system, the care app truly came into its own. By saving workers time normally spent doing administrative tasks or walking around the hospital, the app significantly improved the quality of care provided to patients. This was primarily due to the new, structured way of processing patient requests, which no longer requires physical presence at the patients’ beds. Feedback from the patients themselves was highly positive, too, as the app is easy and intuitive to use and improves their communication with the care staff.

The Bundeswehr has decided to continue the project. The next step is to purchase the software and roll it out using the processes governed by the customer product management (CPM).

„The medical staff of the urology department looks forward to using the care app in future. They would not want to go back to life without this significant boon to their work.“

Hauptfeldwebel Manja Liebrenz, Berlin Bundeswehr hospital

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