Cell enabled laptops for Public Health team at Whanganui Hospital

Our Public Health team at Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora (Health NZ), in Whanganui do their mahi in the community, improving the lives of our people.

With their current equipment (laptops and cellphones) not always able to access Public Health platforms or systems when outside of the office, our Data & Digital team started working on a solution. The team has started a trial that will see our Public Health team no longer have to ask the dreaded question; '"What's your Wi-Fi password?"

Across the Central Region, our mobile staff/kaimahi are being provided 'Cellular Enabled Laptops' that will allow them to continue working efficiently, and self-sufficiently, when they're away from our hospital Wi-Fi networks.

One of benefits of our new, unified national health system, meant our district neighbours - Health NZ - Te Pae Hauora o Ruahine o Tararua MidCentral, could quickly share their resources. In this case, 19 laptops that are 'sim-capable', were shared with our Data & Digital team who are now in phase one of implementing and testing this new way of working. Something that will make life much easier for our kaimahi - no more hot-spotting or piggy backing our community members Wi-Fi.

Thanks Health NZ - Te Pae Hauora o Ruahine o Tararua MidCentral team for the support to keep our kaimahi connected while out on the road!

For Bruce, Public Health Nurse, Communicable Disease and School-based Immunisation Coordinator, this trial is a great tech' update for our public health service, our clients and our community.

He's taken his new sim-enabled laptop on several trips to kura and community homes, as well as testing it at his own rural home/whare. The best thing he's found - it’s working exactly like it would if he was on site. A huge change from using a cellphone as a hotspot with speed no longer an issue. "It connects automatically which is saving time and stress for our team. Much easier to check our emails out in the field! It’s also saving me time and it’s great that I can connect in straight away, exactly like if I was sitting at my desk. Massive thanks to our Data & Digital team and to the team at MidCentral for the help, especially Rebecca and Kerry!"

Bruce said the benefits for our community are being seen already. "Our public health nurses can go to their appointments and show our clients their results in real time. When it comes to writing up notes from visits, we can now do those in real time too - it's going to be such a time saver for our team, while having the additional benefit of our clients being involved in the clinical note-taking part of the process."

It's great to see these collaborations happening across our region and across the country/motu. It's one of many ways we are starting to see our former District Health Boards unite across health care. We're happy our Public Health team is part of this progress!