As one of the most advanced and important sectors in society, the medical field demands proper healthcare inspection to perform at its optimum. But as technology and methods to provide medical attention improve and advance, there is an obvious pressure on the inspection methods having a need to improve.
In some medical facilities, inspectors are still using pen and paper inspection methods to inspect their devices and operations. Today’s top organisations are now however using mobile technology and paperless inspection solutions to carry out organisational checks around any medical facility. For those businesses operating further up the supply chain, the same digital inspection solution is already often being used to check quality assurance or compliance of medical supplies that feed into the vast majority of healthcare facilities.
Just like the benefits for an inspection in another field such as manufacturing, tourism or agriculture, healthcare inspection can also be transformed when moving to digital. Features of a mobile device in the form of a smartphone or tablet can be used in any business or organisational inspection when using a premium inspection solution. When carrying out an inspection of operational equipment in a hospital, it can be key to track wear and tear and the condition of the asset. Using a smartphone, an inspector can take pictures with the device camera, attach this to a checklist (after any necessary annotation of the image), and then send this with the report as visual evidence of the check or condition. There may similarly be barcodes or RFID that need to be scanned; again, this can be done with the device’s camera. Alongside the camera, features such as offline reporting, speech-to-text services, or GPS timestamps all provide additional ways of capturing or inputting data into a checklist during an inspection. When considering the future of healthcare inspections, it is important to think of what the medical industry may look like in 5-, 10- or 15-years’ time etc. Not only is it important to note what the needs and requirements for adequate inspection is at the current time, but what the necessity is in the future. With such rapid advancements in technology and development in how healthcare is provided, it can seem like a futile battle to always stay up to date. Just like any other field or industry however, the best way to stay current and futureproof is investing in technology or methods that can stand the test of time. I.e., prioritise the solutions that can change over time to suit the technology being inspected at that present day.
