At some point last fall Felister Mburu understood that her typical workday as a PSW with VHA Home Healthcare, in Toronto, would change dramatically. Mburu works in the East York region, which was part of a pilot project that saw the company deploy GoldCare MobilityPlus on 20 BlackBerry 10 devices.

VHA is one of the first healthcare companies to implement a BB10 platform and, to date, has rolled out approximately 400 BlackBerry devices. Implementation is scheduled to finish in April 2014, by which time a total of 1,000 devices will be rolled out to all PSW staff across Ontario.

GoldCare is a leading provider of healthcare information management software for community, residential and long-term care organizations, as well as 18 Children’s Treatment Centres across the province.

GoldCare MobilityPlus lets you securely manage appointment, client and program information, and improve documentation, reporting and communication from a smartphone platform. The solution increases communication and efficiency, decreases missed and unfilled visits, improves compliance at the point of care, reduces operating costs, and promotes care team and client collaboration.

“MobilityPlus improves the quality of care I’m able to give my clients and makes the old way seem old-fashioned,” said Mburu. “You don’t have to keep calling the office for addresses or messages or ask someone to speak slower because you can’t understand them. When you’re driving, GPS takes you where you want. There’s no confusion – you have the apartment, the entry code, the street, the client, you have everything you want. I love it!”

Ben Kim is the MobilityPlus Project Lead for VHA. Having moved from Preferred Health Care Services, where his responsibilities included implementing that company’s MobilityPlus solution, Kim joined VHA in 2012 and brought with him extensive industry experience and familiarity with the GoldCare mHealth solution. He reported that PSW response to implementing MobilityPlus at VHA has been mostly positive.

“Personally, I believe MobilityPlus benefits the field staff by empowering them. It provides a lot more information to the field staff than previously,” said Kim. “Just like patient empowerment through ensuring they’re informed of their condition and treatment choices and options, PSW empowerment is practiced through providing them with their schedule information and client information. It gives them better control over their schedules, and better decision making on delivering care because they know more about their clients than before.”

VHA responded to staff apprehensive of the implementation or those experiencing difficulty using the device by nominating MobilityPlus champions, early adopters who engaged in training sessions to support their co-workers in the field. As one of these champions, PSW Paul Miole, who is part of the Toronto Central team, assists with training his colleagues to take on the new system.

“Information can be immediately sent to coordinators and supervisors for solutions to client issues and events,” Miole explained. “Another great benefit is the ability to see the care plan visually on the device.”

VHA’s pilot evaluation reveals that MobilityPlus has impacted a number of key performance indicators. Missed visits, client complaints and administration are drastically reduced. Staff satisfaction has improved because staff are more informed about clients and schedules, receive a faster response from supervisors and the office, and are better connected with co-workers.