Help choosing case & charging station for iPads in a clinic

[chuckiej]

I work in a movement disorders clinic (Parkinson disease, essential tremor, dystonia, etc) and we are moving to an online forms system for some of our questionnaires. If the patients do not fill out the forms at home, the front staff will be able to scan a QR code and put an iPad into the same secure system the patient would have gotten from home. If they do not think they can handle an iPad, we will still have a few scannable paper forms available.

We will roll this out somewhat slowly. Eventually we will likely also have iPads for the docs. Initially we are buying three iPad 2s. What is your advice as far as a case and a charging station of some sort. I'm thinking OtterBoxes because of the drop potential but do not know how hard it is to charge iPads in those cases.

Your help is much appreciated! Here's where I work:
http://mdc.mbi.ufl.edu/

 

[Aspasia]

Sounds like a great plan for your clinic.

All good cases, Otterbox included (which is an excellent case) have cut-outs so connecting the 30-pin adapter isn't going to be an issue using the brick and cable.

Cases could be a problem with a charging station, however, as the iPad may have to be removed from the case to connect to the charging station. Might be more cost effective to get a high quality surge protector/power strip for charging the iPads with the cable and power adapter included with each one.

 

[chuckiej]

Sounds like a great plan for your clinic.

All good cases, Otterbox included (which is an excellent case) have cut-outs so connecting the 30-pin adapter isn't going to be an issue using the brick and cable.

Cases could be a problem with a charging station, however, as the iPad may have to be removed from the case to connect to the charging station. Might be more cost effective to get a high quality surge protector/power strip for charging the iPads with the cable and power adapter included with each one.

Thank you Aspasia! We haven't decided yet which route to go for exactly the reasons you describe. Cases might or might not fit in a docking station. At the end of the day they need to be locked up somewhere, etc. Anyone else with ideas, please speak up. We are ordering 5 with non-Otter "rugged" cases and we'll see how that goes to start.