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Burnout and turnover in the ranks? Tear down the patient data silos.
Patient data silos are a significant issue for hospitals when it comes to patient data. Unfortunately, siloed data can have significant repercussions.
Every hospital system has a web of disparate systems which often aren’t integrated, so they can’t communicate with each other. The result? Data silos. Patient data silos can have major impacts on a patient’s care and treatment. It makes sense, then, to look at what technology is available and align information. There are so many subsets of patient data when it comes to hospital systems that clinicians and Nursing staff end up with a frustrating and exhausting experience to find what they need. In the end, that can mean burnout and turnover.
Systems and data should intersect
When it comes to patient safety, accurate EHR records rely on hospital systems input to maintain accuracy. That way, care histories are documented and patients are treated correctly. Makes sense, right? However, if the systems can’t communicate with each other, data may be lost, and that creates patient identification problems, medication mishaps or prescription and treatment errors. Some data may be available to individual departments but not available to others. Patient information can get pushed around in small increments that are only available to some groups, but not others. Kind of like using a “shadow chart”. No one wins, especially the patient.
Help your team focus on what they do best: patient centered care
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement, in “Better Patient Flow Means Breaking Down the Silos“, references a 200 bed study on patient data. The study looks at a hospital focusing on data at the macro level. When the hospital directed their attention to eliminating siloed information, length of hospital stay reduced from 4.2 to 3.8 days. That’s significant and it proves that with automatically updated patient data, the silos fall. Team communication improves because people aren’t scrambling to figure out where or how to get the information they need. It’s right there on a digital whiteboard, showing current EHR information.
Support teams with better data
MediaCare was designed to help eliminate patient data silos by capturing real-time data on digital Patient Whiteboards and Nurses’ Station Whiteboards to display relevant, current information. Using digital whiteboards that are integrated to the rest of the hospital systems, rounding and Care Team communication are transparent. With options for specialty layouts like LDRP or Cardiology, teams get information specific to their area of expertise. That helps your teams perform at “top of license”. With up to the minute data, you can reduce Length of Stay and support more efficient scheduling and disinfection initiatives. Not only that, but hospital IT leaders reduce patient disruption, since remote server management is available with system integration. Less patient disruption can only improve HCAHPS scoring.
No more dry erase boards
MediaCare includes video options that let caregivers video with patients rather than respond in person. The beauty of video is that you can maintain the personal touch and express empathy without making several trips to a room. By a touch to the digital whiteboard at the Nurses’ station, Nurses can assign patient education, leave informative care notes and update patient discharge goals. How does that help? It gets rid of trips to update a dry erase board and then enter the same data into the EHR. Instead of running around looking for film jackets and image storage, they can pull up images at a patient’s bedside.
Patients win
In addition, with a smart platform like MediaCare, patients can use self service options at their convenience. They can control their room temperature, windows and lights, fill their prescriptions, and manage their entertainment choices. Service requests for blankets, environmental service and food – all of these can be routed directly to non clinical departments for fulfillment. Then, Care Teams aren’t sidelined by non clinical work. Teams can focus on building strong patient relationships and delivering high quality care without frustration and distractions.
Aggregated or patient-specific reporting aids decision-making
With a smart integration solution, grouped patient information is compiled into a single dashboard. That allows Nurse leaders and administrators to see trends and forecast for things like:
- Surgery, therapy and imaging scheduling
- Infection control strategies
- Staffing and EVS resource planning
- Quality programs and cost justification for other needed resources
- Pharmacy supply and fulfillment
- Discharge and bed turnover planning
- Meal management and food order processing