Big Headaches From Big Data

When I hear ‘Big Data,’ I typically imagine the reams and reams of information out there about every medical interaction I’ve ever had: tests, notes from annual visits, shots, etc. What I don’t typically think of is the in-patient side of healthcare’s Big Data: alarms.

In a study at Johns Hopkins Hospital, staff measured an average of 350 alarms, per bed, per day. In the ICU that number was 771. No wonder nurses and physicians are overwhelmed with information! So what’s the solution? 

There is no single magic pill, of course, but one way to start is to use software that sorts and prioritizes alarms and sends them directly to caregivers on smartphones and other devices. That way an alarm meant for one person isn’t going to five or six people who don’t need to be distracted from what they’re doing. It’s also quieter for patients who aren’t hearing quite so many buzzes and beeps.

This recent PinnacleHealth case study may give you some inspiration. Do you have an Alarm Management Team? What is your facility doing to help minimize alarm fatigue?

Connecting the Care Dots

I recently read an article Can the benefits of hospitals acquiring practices be achieved by other means?, which has sparked a lively bit of conversation on the HIMSS LinkedIn page. The author writes that hospitals are acquiring private practices primarily to increase Accountable Care Organization (ACO) reimbursements.

Whatever the motivating factor, private practice acquisition alone does not solve the underlying issue: providing continuous, connected care for patients. The challenge is to fill in the communication gaps between the primary care provider (PCP) and specialist, the emergency room physician and admitting hospitalist, and the hospital back to the PCP. Here are just three of the opportunities I see that can make strides toward connecting the care dots for patients:

·         Give employees access to both your full staff directory and on-call schedule info on their mobile devices (smartphone, tablet, Wi-Fi phone, etc.)

·         Helps coordinate care across multiple hospital departments by facilitating communication among staff for patient admittance, transfers, and discharges

·         Provide a practice’s after-hours answering service using the hospital call center

·         Reduces the cost of external answering services and expedites communication with providers on call

·         Implement technology and policies to ensure follow-up of incidental findings discovered during radiology and lab tests

·         Enhances patient care and safety while decreasing liability from unexpected, non-critical findings potentially getting lost in the shuffle

Embrace Mobility, Improve Patient Care

I frequently hear that managing all of the pagers, smartphones, tablets, Wi-Fi phones, and other devices that staff carry is a challenge in healthcare. I am excited that one of our customers is not just managing it, but is embracing the task and will be talking about it in an upcoming webinar. YoLanda Jones Spears from LifeBridge Health will discuss about how they mobilize their trauma team, coordinate critical codes and emergency response, and send key messages to the right people at the right time on their mobile devices. I’m looking forward to hearing their story, and I hope you will join us!

Useful Technology for Meaningful Change

At HIMSS in New Orleans earlier this month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) hinted at pushing health information technology as a foundation for healthcare system payment and delivery reform. 

Critical test results management (CTRM) probably isn’t the first thing you thought of, or even the third, especially since the focus of the CMS and ONC is primarily on meaningful use and Electronic Health Record (EHR) adoption. However, a CTRM system can truly make an impact in hospital labs everywhere when it comes to care delivery. This technology can help you: 

• Improve patient outcomes with fast notification of critical results 
• Decrease length of stay (and increase patient satisfaction) with fast notification of negative results 
• Improve documentation in the Laboratory Information System (LIS) 
• Prevent wasted time and unusable specimens due to insufficient test instructions 
• Save thousands of dollars in unbillable procedures because necessary information is missing from the LIS 

Saving money while simultaneously increasing efficiency is the epitome of positive change. What are some other, non-EHR related information technologies you can think of that have the potential to improve healthcare delivery?

What’s in Your Texting Solution?

Over the past few years, the explosion of smartphone and tablet use in healthcare has been accompanied by the fear of electronic personal health information (ePHI) vulnerability and potential HIPAA violations. The engine of capitalism has produced a multitude of encrypted texting options for healthcare to address the security risk, but not all solutions are created equal. Beyond simply encrypting messages, what about other important features? 

1. Can physicians and others access on-call directories to quickly locate the right person or role? 
2. Can staff text back and forth to any device in the directory (two-way pagers, WiFi phones, etc.)? 
3. Are there message delivery confirmations to close the communications loop?
4. Is there a full message log to support audits and provide proof in case of litigation? 
5. Can you remotely wipe messages from a lost/stolen device? 
6. Is the solution intuitive so users will be eager to adopt it? 

Providers strive to treat the whole patient, not just a symptom. Similarly, my team and I strive to give providers more than a plain bandage to treat their ePHI security. We treat the whole communication picture. 

If you are interested in a secure, HIPAA-compliant texting solution, or other treatment options, you can chat with one of our business solution advisors for more information!