Microsoft Windows XP
Tablet PC Edition
Gentiva Health Services to Cure Paperwork
Blues with Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
Published: November 2002
Gentiva Health Services employs approximately 30,000 home healthcare
workers including nurses, therapists, and administrative staff. Home
healthcare involves significant amounts of paperwork and record
keeping—including clinical records, claims, and benefits-related forms
and documentation—and Gentiva caregivers enter volumes of data
manually. In addition to taking time and creating frustration for the
caregiver, this situation prolongs the turnaround of important patient data
and billing information. Gentiva believes the remedy may be in pen-based
technology and the Tablet PC.
Situation
Gentiva Health Services is the nation’s leading provider of home health care services. Gentiva
employs a wide variety of staff to support its home health business, from business executives to
registered nurses to administrative personnel. Healthcare professionals, including nurses,
therapists, and other trained specialists, are considered to be Gentiva’s most valuable resource.
The United States—along with the rest of the world—is experiencing a shortage of nurses in
particular. Many industry experts predict that the nursing shortage might soon reach crisis
proportions.
Home healthcare and healthcare in general, involves significant amounts of paperwork and
record keeping, including clinical records, claims, and benefits-related forms and documentation.
A significant portion of a healthcare professional’s time involves this paperwork.
Gentiva’s 30,000 remote workers still complete their paperwork manually, not only requiring
additional data entry associates throughout Gentiva’s 300 sites, but also prolonging the
turnaround of important patient data and billing information. In an effort to streamline the process,
Gentiva had examined and piloted point-of-care solutions involving a variety of computing
devices. However, Gentiva never implemented any of these solutions on a large production scale
because of following issues:

High cost of investment and expense to support large numbers of mobile devices with low or
no return on investment

Immaturity and technological weaknesses of the computing solutions

Complexity of security and patient information privacy issues, including Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) requirements
Solution Overview
Customer Profile
Gentiva Health Services is the
largest provider of home health care
services in North America.
Business Situation
Gentiva’s 30,000 remote workers
still complete their paperwork
manually, not only requiring
additional data entry associates
throughout Gentiva’s 300 sites, but
also prolonging the turnaround of
important patient data and billing
information.
Solution
Gentiva has begun a three-phase
pilot program deploying Tablet PCs:
first, sampling a cross-section of the
whole organization; second,
including more business personnel;
and third, releasing a line-ofbusiness application for field
workers.
Benefits



Higher worker satisfaction and
retention
Increased productivity
Reduced data entry through
automation
Software and Services
Microsoft Windows Server
Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server
Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC
Edition
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET
Microsoft Consulting Services
Hardware
Acer TravelMate 100 Tablet PC
Solution
Gentiva believes that the Tablet PCs powered by Microsoft Windows XP will be not only a
replacement for laptops in the business ranks of the corporation, but may also be the long-sought
“The freedom and mobility of
a pen-based Tablet PC is
answer to field workers’ paperwork blues. “The Tablet PC technology has the potential to make a
particularly suited to home
dramatic difference to our nurses,” says Bob Creamer, Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice
healthcare—it’s a natural
President for Financial Operations at Gentiva. “This type of technology could give our company a
transition from paper.
competitive edge for recruiting and retaining nursing staff, which is crucial to delivering good
service to our patients.” Gentiva is also looking at IVR Technology and Pocket PCs to capture
subsets of patient data. A variety of needs will require a range of technology.
Gentiva has begun a pilot program to deploy the Tablet PCs: first, releasing to a cross-section of
the whole organization and then deploying a Tablet PC–based line-of-business application for
field workers.
Introducing the Tablet PC
The purpose of the first phase of the Tablet PC deployment has allowed them to evaluate the
hardware and software, plus the total effectiveness of the Tablet PC. Issues examined include:

Microsoft Ink performs better
than any previous
handwriting-recognition
solutions we have tested.”
Mike Hannah
Chief Technology Officer and
Vice President of Information
Technology
Gentiva Health Services
How does the Tablet PC change an information worker’s approach to work in general? For
instance, are the employees able to work in unexpected places, like in a hallway during a
discussion with a coworker?

How viable is the Tablet PC for use by field workers? Will the learning curve be high? Will the
Tablet PC be powerful enough to run the necessary programs?
Introducing the Cure for Paperwork
The company is moving quickly to develop a pilot Tablet PC–based solution using Microsoft
Visual Studio® .NET with C# and XML programming languages, along with the Ink controls
included with the Tablet PC Platform Software Development kit (SDK). Ink-enabled Microsoft
Office applications ease documentation and communications tasks by allowing the user to work
with forms using a digital pen, right on the screen.
Because Windows XP Tablet PC Edition is a superset of the Windows XP Professional operating
“The Tablet PC technology
has the potential to make a
dramatic difference to our
system, it addresses issues that were previously difficult and expensive for Gentiva to solve with
nurses. This type of
traditional mobile devices. For example, Windows XP can protect patient information security and
technology could give our
privacy by offering robust, industry-standard security and encryption features such as the
company a competitive edge
Encrypted File System (EFS), and public key infrastructure (PKI) and virtual private network
(VPN) features and protocols.
for recruiting and retaining
nursing staff, which is crucial
Also, because the Tablet PC is a powerful personal computer and as such includes support for
USB devices, additional peripherals can be added easily:
to delivering good service to
our patients.”

Digital cameras for patient identification and wound care documentation photos

Data backup devices for field-based, automated backups

Color printers for producing patient education materials
Benefits
The Tablet PC contains features that address and resolve key difficulties Gentiva experienced
with its previous point-of-care devices, PDAs, and even traditional laptops:
Bob Creamer
Chief Information Officer and
Senior Vice President for
Financial Operations
Gentiva Health Services

Operating system—Windows XP Tablet PC Edition includes the full set of capabilities of
Windows XP, plus pen-based computing enhancements.

Handwriting-recognition technology—Microsoft Ink is truly advanced handwriting recognition,
with the ability to translate handwriting to text for use in other programs and even the
capacity to search handwritten notes.

Design—All variations of the Tablet PC are truly lightweight and portable, while maintaining
the same power, speed, and capacity of a traditional notebook computer.
Fosters Higher Worker Satisfaction
Gentiva realizes that to recruit and retain valuable caregivers, it must diminish the paperwork and
allow the caregivers to focus on the reason they became health care workers in the first place: to
take care of the patients.
Gentiva has unveiled to its health care workers early prototypes of the Ink-enabled application
“The nurses have only one
that will automate much of the paperwork they currently must fill out manually. Early response is
question: when can we have
extremely positive.
this [Tablet PC-based
“The nurses have only one question: when can we have this [Tablet PC-based program] in the
program] in the field? Even
field?” says Matt Rebeck, Principal Technical Specialist of Gentiva Health Services. “It was
though the nurses each had
amazing! Even though the nurses each had varying levels of computer skills, they were all able to
varying levels of computer
use the pen to interact with the program successfully right away.”
Increases Business Productivity
Initial response from the business ranks within Gentiva confirms that switching from a traditional
desktop or notebook computer to the Tablet PC not only happens smoothly but also immediately
begins to pay off. Says Rebeck, “The Tablet PC is the obvious choice to replace notebooks and
skills, they were all able to
use the pen to interact with
the program successfully
right away.”
desktop PCs for our information workers.” The lightweight, compact design makes traveling with
the computer easier, whether it’s being carried onto an airplane or along the hallways of the
corporate office—no more lugging a seven-pound laptop and balancing it on a knee while trying
to type in notes.
In addition, clear benefits exist for the field worker.
“The freedom and mobility of a pen-based tablet computer is particularly suited to home
healthcare—it’s a natural transition from paper,” says Mike Hannah, Chief Technology Officer and
Vice President of Information Technology for Gentiva Health Services. “Microsoft Ink performs
better than any previous handwriting-recognition solutions we have tested.”
Facilitates Cost Savings and Revenue Increases
Gentiva finds that both its large staff of home healthcare workers and its corporate personnel are
excited about the Tablet PCs, and the company expects that general worker productivity will rise.
Once Gentiva introduces the pen-based application feature, it anticipates:

Cost savings on data entry because caregivers can automate some paperwork and input
information directly into their records system from the Tablet PC

Reduction of paperwork and staff turnover
Matt Rebeck
Principal Technical Specialist
Gentiva Health Services
Microsoft Windows Tablet PC Edition provides a more versatile computing experience,
enabling you to use your PC in more places and more ways.
For more information about Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, go to:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/tabletpc/
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at
(800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who
are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the
United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your
local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:
http://www.microsoft.com/
For more information about Gentiva Health Services products and services, visit the Web site at:
http://www.gentiva.com/
© 2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
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