Home Forums Opinions on Optimal Tablet/Laptop Size, Brand, Etc.

Hi! My physician is considering tablets or smaller "hand held" size laptops for our office personnel both clinical and administrative for mobile use of ACPM in our office as well as for remote use outside the office. She has a personal Surface that she has attempted to use in the exam room, but finds the screen too small to be efficient. She would ultimately like for all office personnel to carry "their desk" with them in a portable fashion if that makes sense.

She would like some feedback regarding whether anyone else does this in their office, and if so, what have you found to be the optimal size for said device? Has this worked in your office for clinical and admin purposes? What issues have you had with efficiency and/or workflow?

ANY feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance! --Kris

Kris,
Matte screen, 14 inch minimum screen with a keyboard and hdmi port. I prefer a chromebook, affordable, durable, easy to replace at point of care. Using vnc viewer enterprise version you can take your simulated desktop with you into exam room. Instead of a a computer in every room I prefer a wall mounted large screen (at least 24 inches) HDMI'd to the chromebook
Less computers to manage, less moving parts, simpler, cheaper.
In terms of workflow at point of care, tremendously helpful and time saving to integrate the patient with reviewing past history, social, family, meds, allergies, US Task Force Recs, Up To Date educational material in a visual interactive way. I would only use this approach for the doc at point of care.
For the nurse, I think she is better served with a dual monitored standing desk,& have her manage the schedule,phone, healthCRM/efaxing/portal, AC, the "coalescence of care". IMHO a mobile device for the nurse is not terribly effectual. But also really depends on your physical workspace & more than one way to skin a cat.
With respect to workflow with ACPM can't help you there. & mobile hand held devices/laptops outside office I would discourage and prohibit except only for the doc. I don't see how mobile hand held devices/laptops would help in the administrative office workflow either. Stationary workstations seem to work the best in my experience for this.

Every year my eyeglass prescription gets worse. After staring at my 13.3 in. Lenovo Yoga 3 screen for a few hours I hope it dies soon so I can go with a 17.3 in. laptop.

13.3" is a good size if you don't have trouble reading. 17" is the way to go if you have a hard time seeing. But, considering how good docking stations have become, I know a lot of physicians who setup a monitor (much bigger sizes), mouse and keyboards in exam rooms and other areas. They then use a much more portable laptop like the yoga to carry around.

Docking stations weren't very good until USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt came around. I've had good luck with the Plugable UD-3900. The good ones were proprietary back in the day. Now as long as you have USB 3.0, everything works well.

So you could get something handheld and not sacrifice usability.

I've been using a Surface Pro 2 since they came out screen is 11.5, I wear my trifocals and sit on a stool right next to the counter I put it on and rarely ever have to use the magnifier function built into Windows.
Then again I am a fly fisherman and tie my own flies so zoning in on fine detail just seems second nature.
My only complaint is AC is not written for touch screen/finger gesture input, bout time I start the request wagon rolling again.

Kris - several of our practices use 14" Chromebooks (with terminal services) for the clinical staff that room patients, take vitals, review meds, etc.

They are inexpensive, don't store any patient info on them, have a good battery life, wake up quickly, and are a good balance of screen size and weight.

Do you have a nurse's station where your nurse stands? What type of standing desk, one by Just Stand? My MA is wanting to stand now for her back, so I'm looking at that.

Chris,
Yes, my nurse has a station & on top of this rests the varidesk.com & she has the one that can fit in a corner. Easy to move from standing to sitting positions, and the two 22" inch screen monitors + telephone fit nicely and the shelf below has plenty of room for the keyboard. She loves it. I may get one too.