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A coworker of mine recently embarked on a quest to find a new car. His old one was becoming expensive to repair and maintain, the safety features were outdated, and it was no longer fuel efficient. He spent a lot of time searching online and reading reviews, but the most informative and important part of the process was the test drive. A test drive is the best opportunity to experience features, see the technology in action, and make sure it fits.
If you’re planning to attend HIMSS in New Orleans next week, I invite you to take a test drive of our critical messaging solutions in the Interoperability Showcase. We will be in other locations, too, so make an appointment or just stop in at one of the spots listed below. We’d love to meet you and offer an in-person experience to see if we fit! If you can’t make it, visit the Amcom HIMSS page online.
- Amcom Booth #2373
- Cisco Booth #2329
- Intelligent Hospital Pavilion Booth #8711
- Interoperability Showcase
- Rauland-Borg Booth #2419 on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. when we will present "Examining the Benefits: Syncing Hospital Systems with “One Sign-On”
- Sprint Booth #2226
Since their introduction in 2002, the Joint Commission’s annual National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) have included “Improve the effectiveness of communication among caregivers.” We recently published a new white paper on this topic, including a section on critical test results management (if you are interested, you can access the paper here). Now there is discussion about adding another communication-related NPSG: alarm management.
Alarm fatigue is a serious issue. We learned as children the importance of not crying “Wolf!” and raising false alarms¬—it dilutes the effectiveness of real emergencies. With all of the equipment used in hospital rooms today there are frequent beeps, alarms and alerts sounding. Some of our customers are already addressing this issue by using secure text messages to directly notify nurses and physicians when certain alarms or monitoring systems are triggered.
What are some other ways to help reduce alarm fatigue? What is your institution doing to combat this issue? Are there any new initiatives on the horizon? I’d love to hear about your solutions, please feel free to share!
I have a friend who works in a hospital lab, and I once overheard her husband wish her a boring day at work. It struck me as odd until I thought about the deeper implications of what that meant – a ‘boring’ day for her would mean fewer STAT tests for potential emergencies, and fewer tests with critical results.
It would be wonderful news for patients if all days in the lab were boring. But since a typical hospital lab processes thousands of tests per day, slow days are few and far between. The good news is that communications have advanced a lot in the past several years and critical results are being reported more quickly. This means faster care and potentially better outcomes, even when test results are critical and life changing for someone. So, for all of you who work in the lab, radiology, and the ED… I wish you a boring day. (And if it’s not so boring, I wish you smooth communications instead.)
Learn more about reporting test results quickly.
While cast members from “Star Trek: The Next Generation” celebrated their 25th anniversary last year, the X Prize Foundation and Qualcomm announced a $10 million Tricorder X Prize, expected to be awarded in mid-2016. Even if you’re not a Sci-Fi fan who knows what a medical tricorder is, using a hand-held instrument to scan and instantly diagnose patients is a mainstream idea close to becoming a reality.
Beyond even the capabilities of a Star Trek communicator, smartphones have revolutionized the way people interact with each other and consume everything from news to entertainment. Physicians are using the small mobile devices to receive alerts about patients, connect with other providers for consultations, even review test results. But we don’t have to wait until 2016 and the announcement of an X Prize winner to experience hand-held, mobile diagnostics. Smartphones are already poised to enter the physical healthcare space and launch themselves from communication devices and reference manuals into the orbit of diagnostic tools.
Need to check your blood pressure, glucose levels, or monitor your heart rhythm? With attachments, a specialized case, or even just an app with a complex algorithm, smartphones are becoming another tool in a provider’s bag of tricks. Smartphone devices and applications are also being developed that determine eye prescriptions, take images of a child’s inner ear for remote diagnosis of ear infections, and act as a microscope to analyze fluid samples for diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis.
What’s the new frontier for mobile communication devices, and where will they go next?
We’ve all played phone tag – arranging lunch with a friend, scheduling a dentist appointment, maybe organizing a surprise birthday party. Leaving successive messages for each other can be funny or mildly annoying in our personal lives, but if I were a patient in a hospital’s emergency department, I certainly wouldn’t want phone tag about my test results to delay my treatment.
For the eleventh consecutive year, the Joint Commission’s #2 National Patient Safety Goal centers around communications. For the past five years, the goal has specifically included “report critical results of tests and diagnostic procedures on a timely basis.” It sounds simple, yet many institutions struggle with communications between the Lab and the ED, Radiology, ordering physicians….it can get pretty complicated to deliver results to the right person quickly.
Aunt Minnie recently posted a solution story on their site about EMH Healthcare in Elyria, Ohio. EMH Healthcare is using our Critical Test Results Management (CTRM) solution to improve the workflow for both radiologists and ER physicians and provide a more efficient communication process.
"We were manually communicating our critical test results," said Michelle Dossa, Manager, Department of Imaging Services, EMH Healthcare. "Now, the ER doctors immediately see an alert on the EMR dashboard. We have also eliminated the need for radiology nurses to track reports and dictations, maintain a document log, and make calls to notify ER physicians," said Dossa.
What a great way to start the New Year, with a goal for 2013 already checked off!
