Testing and Timing

Hospitals are continually striving to improve patient care and the hospital experience. Toumey Medical Center in Sumter, S.C., wanted to do just that by changing their test results process in the emergency department. Their specific targets were to speed patient care and discharge, improve test result communication among physicians, and reduce the time Radiologists and ED physicians spent trying to locate and talk with each other. 

Tuomey evaluated several systems, and I’m proud to say that they selected our Critical Test Results Management (CTRM) solution. I’m even more pleased to be able to share their results. 

“Amcom gave us exactly what we needed to take care of patients faster,” said José Bennett, PACS Administrator, Tuomey Healthcare. “During the three months immediately following implementation we saw an 11% improvement in patient discharge times. Even when test results are normal, the doctor simply knows this information sooner than before.” 

The software also tracks communications, providing a closed-loop system and full audit trail that improves compliance with The Joint Commission’s National Patient Safety Goal #2 (focused on how hospitals handle critical test results). “We can now track all of our messages and have reduced the back and forth phone calls between Radiology and the ED,” said Bennett. 

And lastly, CTRM is improving patient care by providing a follow-up for incidental findings discovered during exams. “If a patient has, say, pulmonary nodules that show up during a scan, these could become cancer in six months or a year. We can note these findings … and advise the patient and his or her family physician to follow up.”

 This is all great news - patients receive faster treatment and better follow-up care, and providers save time that can be spent with patients instead of voicemail. 

What are your experiences with the test results process? Does your imaging department or ED have special protocols for critical test results? How are incidental findings communicated to patients and their primary care providers for follow-up? 

Want to read the full case study? Learn more here.

The Beep Goes On

Most of my blog posts over the past few months, including this one, are focused on smartphones. Clinical smartphone communication is such a widely talked-about, read-about and thought-about topic because it is completely re-defining the beep and call-back procedure and offering providers a way to fundamentally change their workflows. On a smartphone, the alert message lets a provider know if a situation is critical, or if it can wait until their current task is completed. Smartphones offer the ability to respond immediately with an acknowledgment, a reply, or even a call to discuss information. And, the entire exchange can be tracked, providing a full audit trail.

So why isn’t everyone adopting smartphone usage at their facility? A recent article in The Globe and Mail discusses some of the implementation challenges and looks at how several hospitals are approaching these topics.

If you are curious to read more about what other facilities are up to, Amcom conducted a survey of more than 300 hospitals in June 2012 to find out how they are approaching mobility strategies. You’ll find the outcomes in both white paper and webinar formats.

I would love to hear from you, too. Is your facility piloting or implementing a smartphone program? Who gets to use them – providers only, or other staff such as nurses, transport teams, and housekeeping? What challenges are you facing and how are you overcoming them?