Case Study: Lebenshilfe Gelderland
Employees at Lebenshilfe Gelderland complete patient visits with Android smartphones, a nursing care app and Cortado MDM.
69 nursing staff employed by the non-profit Lebenshilfe Gelderland provide support for patients in Germany’s Geldern region. Medical and nursing care are just as much a part of the daily routine of the employees as is support with household tasks.
Important questions here include when patient appointments are scheduled, and which medication should be administered. Employees must keep an eye on these and other organizational tasks in addition to their nursing activities. That was one of the reasons why paperwork used to be part and parcel of patient visits. And once employees had completed their patient visits, they had to return to the office to document their work. “Many employees had extensive patient rounds and then had to go back into head office, before beginning their commute home,” recalls Harald Schwarz, Managing Director at Clever Rechenzentrum, which provides comprehensive IT support to the non-profit organization. “This certainly wasn’t fun for employees and was extremely time-consuming.”
It soon became clear that mobile devices would deliver significant improvements to workflows and overall effectiveness. For planning visits, medication, but also for the documentation of the tasks performed, the organization uses IC-SYS’s Profsys software. What was needed was a solution to securely manage and deploy the devices and the app. Together with its IT service provider Clever Rechenzentrum, they set out to find a suitable enterprise mobility solution.
Special attention was paid to security, as patient data are placed under unique levels of protection. They ultimately decided on Cortado MDM. “A Cortado employee demonstrated the system to us and it suited us best,” recalls Harald Schwarz. What was important for him was that besides the security requirements that needed to be met was that the solution could be managed via Active Directory (AD). He noted “You don’t have to enter anything manually, as it fully integrates with Active Directory”. This is a unique feature available with the Cortado solution. Based on Microsoft’s Active Directory, Cortado MDM provides clear user and group management consistent with the rest of the IT landscape, and with minimal additional effort for mobile device management. If changes are made in rights management, these are also automatically adopted for mobile devices.
Another requirement was that it was necessary to block certain apps, such as Facebook. According to the IT expert, not all systems were able to do this. Cortado fully met this requirement.
Meanwhile, 69 nursing employees are currently working with Samsung Android devices. Although employees may also make phone calls and use the camera with the devices provided by the organization, they are primarily intended for work use.
The Profsys app is accessed via a UC-enabled browser. The devices are configured via the Cortado MDM and the app is provided via the system. The Cortado experts were on hand to provide advice during the initial installation. According to Harald Schwarz, he conducted training courses for the nursing employees. After all, there were colleagues who were not yet fully familiar with the use of smartphones. Initial help was therefore important.
The solution is currently being tested in the assisted living area. Beyond that, the organization is considering enabling mobile file access.
Harald Schwarz is satisfied: “Cortado’s support was excellent and everything runs smoothly. The mobile solution really reduces the burden for nursing care”
About Lebenshilfe Gelderland
Founded in 1977 by parents of disabled children, Lebenshilfe für Behinderte Gelderland e.V. initial aim was to support, advise and help each other, as well as to create measures and facilities that provide real life support for the disabled, especially the mentally handicapped from birth to old age. Respectful encounters (especially) with disadvantaged people and their families characterize their operations and determine the range of services offered. The further development of the organization based on these principles posed a challenge for all parties involved. Ongoing changes in legal and financial framework conditions and the consideration of business-oriented corporate structures led to the founding of Lebenshilfe Gelderland as a corporate organization in 2004. With more than 470 members and 210 employees, Lebenshilfe Gelderland is committed to increasing the participation and self-determination of disabled people and people with mental and multiple disabilities and their relatives. The aim of Lebenshilfe Gelderland is to ensure that disabled people are given every opportunity to develop skills in line with their ability to lead a humane life. With its facilities, Lebenshilfe Gelderland creates and intensifies contacts between disabled, their relatives and non-disabled people.