Like everyone else, healthcare workers are doing more and more of their work on mobile devices. From physicians updating patient records to home health nurses checking schedules or front desk admins handling intake, there’s a growing expectation that people shouldn’t have to find a computer or plug in a laptop to access important information. And the same goes for the policies, protocols, and staff directories on your intranet.
The good news for Microsoft 365 users is that SharePoint and Teams are quite capable of delivering a mobile-friendly access to all the information your staff needs on the clinical floor or out in the field, it just takes a bit of forethought when setting up your sites, pages, teams and channels.
Below find some recommendations for creating mobile-friendly resources in Microsoft 365.
Go modern.
There are two types of SharePoint sites: “Classic” and “Modern.” And, in this case, “Classic” is just a polite way of saying “Outdated.” Microsoft only includes classic sites in Microsoft 365 to support organizations who built out large intranets on older versions of SharePoint and don’t have time to remodel.
Modern sites are mobile responsive by default, making them good looking and easy to navigate on smaller screens.
- Quick links are your friend.
While SharePoint mega-menus make it easy to see all your options at a glance on desktop, placing a block of quick links at the top of your home page can help mobile users jump to frequently-accessed files, forms, and apps at the touch of a large, visually appealing button.
Think about what resources each group of users will likely need most – is it a list of local pharmacies? An incident reporting form?
If the answer varies between one worker and another, you can use the “audience targeting” feature to show a different set of quick links to different groups in your organization.
Replace your PDF forms with interactive, online forms.
For staff who work on the go, such as home health providers, having to download and edit or – worse – print out PDF forms can be a major headache. And while there is no avoiding this for certain government-mandated paperwork, you can make life easier for both your staff filling out the form and those responsible for capturing the data by re-creating them as mobile-responsive Microsoft Forms.
These forms can be linked from or embedded directly into SharePoint intranet pages. What’s more, you can use Power Automate to automatically notify whoever needs to approve them, or fill in additional details from your databases to save time on manual entry.
Provide a space to connect with colleagues.
Microsoft 365 offers multiple ways for remote workers to develop a connection with other team members. SharePoint can provide news and Q&A forums, Teams offers HIPAA-compliant group chat, and Yammer functions like an internal social network for your organization.
And you can set up different spaces for different purposes – for instance, our team helped a healthcare client create a forum / ticketing system specifically for helping staff get quick answers to medical coding questions.
Upgrade the standard document library views.
While modern SharePoint sites look good on mobile, overall, certain web parts are more mobile-friendly than others. Case in point: document libraries. The default library look and feel is a bit awkward on mobile but you can use an add-on like Lightning Conductor and a bit of custom JS to provide a bigger, bolder library interface that’s easier to browse on a touch screen.
swipe slider to see difference
Conclusion
In healthcare, there is a vast amount of information that needs to change hands every day, and team members are often not at their desks. Providing mobile-friendly access to everything employees need right at their fingertips is critical. The mobile-friendly features of Microsoft 365 can save your staff time, create a sense of connection, and support delivery of better patient care.
If your organization has questions about Microsoft 365’s capabilities for the healthcare industry, we’d love to talk.