HP is launching an all-in-one PC, notebook, and display designed for healthcare settings — and perhaps the most interesting feature is that they can stand up to germicidal wipes daily.
Sure, HP’s Healthcare portfolio has other perks, like an RFID for easy badge reading, HIPAA compliant security, and audio tuning for multiple settings. HP also had to make sure that its devices’ batteries didn’t interfere with health equipment in a hospital.
But HP had to get its wares set for repeatable sanitization in patient rooms. Reid Oakes, senior director of worldwide healthcare at HP, said IT gear has been limited to areas in a hospital due to the need to sanitize. “The need to clean them with germicidal wipes was limiting where IT equipment is actually used inserting a gap between the provider and the patient,” said Oakes.
“We worked closely with our healthcare customers to develop a rigorous testing methodology. Our testing simulates up to 10,000 wipes with germicidal towelettes over a 3-year period. The feedback from customers in HP’s Healthcare Advisory Council is that this testing is not only sufficient for cleaning and disinfecting the new Healthcare Edition devices after every shift, every day, but is likely be sufficient for sanitizing the devices after every patient encounter,” said Oakes.
What happens if a regular notebook or PC is wiped down repeatedly with germicidal wipes? “In typical IT equipment if you lay chemical agents and wipes on them you’ll see paint come off and plastics melting,” he said.
HP outlined the healthcare portfolio at the HIMSS conference in Las Vegas.
The lineup from HP is designed to address unique needs in hospitals and other settings. For instance, clinicians log into workstations and applications 70 times a day. Security is also an issue, since more than 16 million healthcare records were stolen in 2016. Sanitization is also critical, as they’re are 1.7 million healthcare associated infections in US hospitals a year.
HP’s healthcare portfolio includes:
- HP EliteBook 840 G5 Healthcare Edition Notebook: It has software called Easy Clean, so it can be cleaned while the device is running. The notebook also has RFID and biometrics for single sign-on authentication. It even has features for collaboration and boosting audio and noise cancellation. The notebook is available in May.
- HP EliteOne 800 G4 23.8 Healthcare Edition AiO: A PC with the ability to suppress background distraction in a noisy setting and a dual-facing pop-camera for simplifying patient registration and badging. It will be available in June.
- The HP Healthcare Edition HC270cr Clinical Review display: It supports the features in the aforementioned devices and serves as a clinical review display with USB-C that supplies power to connected devices. It will be available in June.