Workstations Designed for Today's Healthcare Professional

By Brian Hazelwood, Senior Product Manager  

 

Existing clinical workstations have not kept pace with demographic changes. Most workstations currently found in clinical environments are not designed for today’s demographically and ethnically diverse healthcare providers.

 

These current workstations support either a seated or a standing workflow for only a limited range of staff heights, requiring most users to bend or stretch to reach supplies and equipment, crane their neck to read from a monitor, or hunch over to type on a keyboard. This can dramatically impact provider well-being and the ability to provide great care.

 

As healthcare shifts toward automation, physicians are now spending about half of their time each day on EMR and desk work. It is no surprise that back, neck and shoulders are the most commonly reported repetitive strain injuries for clinicians since the inception of EMRs.

 

Clinical equipment used at the point of care should enhance the patient-provider experience, not hinder it. It also should provide proper ergonomics – not aches, pains and injuries.

 

To that end, Midmark studied more than 20 healthcare facilities and identified elements of current workstations that were missing. Working closely with healthcare staff and ergonomics experts, we designed a workstation that is intuitive for the user, supports the deployment of technology at the point of care, and properly supports the provider-patient interaction and the clinical workflow.

 

The new workstations are ergonomically designed to support the needs of nearly all users, from those in the 5th percentile of height (5'0" female) and the 95th percentile of height (6'4" male) – and everyone in between.

 

Our workstations offer:

  • An intuitive guidance label and lever to allow for an easily adjustable workstation height that requires little force
  • Easy vertical adjustment to promote proper posture with neck, shoulder, arm and wrist alignment
  • 180 degrees of left-to-right monitor rotation to promote content sharing and continuous eye contact for provider and patient (workstations with monitor arm)
  • Configurations for PC, laptop or tablet applications as well as optional accessories for scanners, printers and other needs

 

Clinicians need workstations that provide the flexibility to support the integration of technology, such as EMRs and tablets, within the exam room while helping improve the patient-provider interaction. The new workstations enable organizations to easily bring digital information to the point of care without sacrificing workflow or negatively impacting the experience.

 

With the introduction of these ergonomic workstations, the full suite of products from Midmark are designed to function as part of a fully integrated ecosystem to help health systems take a renewed look at patient-provider interaction and, in the end, the delivery of efficient and proper patient care for improved outcomes.

 

Learn more about our workstation solutions and how they can help provide a better experience at the point of care.