As I started doing research to help senior living organizations select the appropriate hardware for the clinical staff to document care on, I was utterly astounded at how big of a difference there was between medical grade and consumer grade hardware. In fact, I was surprised to learn there was even such a thing as “medical grade” hardware! As I learned more about what those differences were and how they impacted the investment that senior living organizations were making when purchasing POC devices, I now see the vitality of such a consideration when making a selection.
Things like not having any exposed ports, having plastics that are able to be sterilized, and the unique privacy needs of the healthcare industry are things that don’t quite come to mind first when doing research. There is even a huge difference between a medical and consumer grade touchscreen, where medical grade can withstand much more abuse and doesn’t require an exposed finger to actually recognize that it should respond! With all the benefits that medical grade devices have over consumer grade…in addition to considering the large cost of ownership and higher frequency of replacing consumer grade devices, it becomes clear that there really is only one choice in this industry.
I hope that this infographic helps raise awareness of some of the important differences between medical and consumer grade. But please also download our in depth eBook for a truly comprehensive guide to selecting the right POC device for your organization. You can download the eBook by visiting here.
I also invite you to attend our Free Webinar on February 28th on Selecting the Right Point of Care Device. To learn more and to register, please visit here.
Thanks and happy hardware hunting!
Steven VanderVelde
Senior Living Enterprise Architect
