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Current and Breaking News for Professionals, Consumers and Media |
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| Current and Breaking News for Professionals, Consumers and Media |
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Sarah is a patient who needs knee surgery. Two days prior to her surgery she participates in a virtual education session through the hospital’s secure website to get a “tour,” “meet” the care team and “view” her room. Since she already confirmed all pre-admission authorization and registration information online, she simply swipes her hospital ID card at the arrival kiosk on the day prior to surgery. The kiosk confirms that Sarah’s room is ready and provides her with printable directions to its location. The following morning she is brought to surgery where her wrist band with an embedded radio frequency identification (RFID) tag is scanned, recording in the surgery system that she has arrived and is ready. When she awakens after surgery, her husband Bill is beside her. She finds out later that the surgery system tracked her progress through pre-op, the OR and recovery room, and sent periodic messages to his BlackBerry device. When the nurse saw Sarah was waking up, she entered the event into the surgery system, triggering a call to Bill. Before leaving the hospital, Sarah joins a Webcast with her surgeon, nurse and care mentor to review her care plan. The nurse documents Sarah’s questions in the electronic health record (EHR) as part of the discharge process, and the discharge summary is automatically sent to her primary care physician (PCP)’s EHR and to her personal health record (PHR). When she gets home she simply needs to add the blood pressure cuff to her home computer to enable remote post-discharge monitoring by her care mentor and the hospital’s post-care center. After a few days at home, Sarah realizes she needs to change the time of her follow-up visit. When she accesses her PHR, she notices an automatic reminder e-mail from her PCP that she is overdue for a flu shot. She conveniently books both the flu shot and reschedules the post-op visit online for later that week. Patient billing is also hassle-free. Following the surgery, Sarah is pleasantly surprised to find her bill viewable online and easy to understand. After a few questions are answered via a “virtual” insurance advisor, she settles her part of the bill online. Technology provides Sarah with tailored, personal care and a high level of convenience in every aspect of the care process. Her care is coordinated across all providers and settings and her health information is accessible to all authorized providers, thanks to interoperable, secure integrated health information systems. Remote monitoring technology along with guidance from her personal care mentor allows Sarah to leave the hospital sooner to spend more time recovering at home—a more convenient and cost effective alternative. Linda is an inpatient nurse working for a health system. As she arrives at the hospital, her badge automatically notifies the time and attendance system and activates all of her data access permissions. She gets to work right away. The clinical information system displays her patient list and summaries that include individual care plans that drive the schedule of care. When Sarah checks in using the self-service kiosk, a message is automatically sent to Linda’s wireless device notifying her of the new admission. She “accepts” the notification message and greets the patient as she steps out of the elevator. Linda uses wireless digital instruments to capture Sarah’s vital signs and automatically enters the information into an EHR with the click of a button. Documentation is now a simple process of confirming that an activity in the care plan has been completed, allowing Linda more time to attend to patient needs. She no longer wastes time searching for equipment, supplies or support staff since the new workflow management system coordinates and adjusts schedules based on patient, staff and equipment availability, and ensures that all supplies and equipment arrive “just in time” to the right location. Improved efficiency and a greater sense of control as a result of using technology allow her more time for activities such as entering bids for upcoming shifts, and participating in online interactive education session regarding new monitoring equipment. Technology greatly increases Linda’s productivity, allowing her more time to care for patients and participate in educational activities. In addition to improved quality of care delivered to patients, Linda’s job satisfaction has also increased. Jason Smith is a rounding physician and Sarah’s PCP. Before even leaving for work, he receives a text message on his iPhone indicating that there is a panic lab on a patient who he does not know. Since the computer system is integrated with the identity management system and the coverage list, a text message was automatically sent out to him, the covering physician, for any lab panic values. Doctor Smith reviews the patient’s recent clinical history by accessing his EHR via wireless tablet and then confers with the hospitalist online, where they agree on medication adjustments in real time. Upon entering the hospital, Doctor Smith’s badge activates a tablet device displaying the daily schedule of activities that is optimized based on his preferences, logistics, equipment availability and patient needs. As he enters his first patient’s room, her information automatically comes up on his wireless tablet. There is no need for him to spend time re-entering any information on the patient’s history or current medications since all such information is part of her cross-continuum EHR. That afternoon, Doctor Smith uses some free time that opens up—as a result of automatic schedule updates by the workflow management system—to check in with his office practice via wireless tablet. He responds to several non-urgent messages, reviews/approves refill requests and accesses his practice EHR system to track patient care. He sees a reminder that Sarah, one of his patients, is having surgery today. After completing his rounds, Sarah is surprised and pleased that Doctor Smith stopped by to see how she is progressing—she doesn’t realize that he had already been tracking her care since he can access his practice EHR, which gets updates from the hospital’s clinical information systems For physicians like Doctor Smith, technology supports significant productivity and efficiency gains and patient safety improvements. System integration enables enhanced communication and coordination among care providers, and improved efficiency allows physicians more time to spend listening to and addressing patient questions and concerns. Jennifer is a personal care mentor in a medical home. She recently helped one of her advisees, Sarah, lose five pounds and get her blood glucose under control before undergoing knee surgery. By tracking weight and blood sugar readings sent daily via devices connected to Sarah’s home computer, Jennifer made adjustments to her diet and scheduled automated medication reminders to be sent to her BlackBerry device. Jennifer checks in with Sarah before and after her surgery to stay informed of her progress and help her prepare for the post-discharge care management process. After checking in with Sarah, Jennifer uses her computer to review the information for her other advisees. She notices that John has not sent in his vital sign information or taken his medication last night. She calls his house to follow up, and when there is no answer she calls his daughter, Kelsey. She answers and says that her father is with her, has taken his medications and will take his vital signs when he goes home later this morning. Kelsey thanks Jennifer for such prompt care service and tells her that she is so glad her dad can still live at home, with her help as a care mentor. Technology enables personal care mentors to serve as readily available educational resources, keep patients on track toward achieving tailored care goals, and allow certain patients to continue living at home. Supporting patients like John can prevent the need to utilize long-term care or skilled nursing facilities, resulting in overall healthcare system cost savings. Patient and caregiver engagement can also be improved with motivation and positive reinforcement from care mentors like Jennifer. The Bottom Line The technology required to make the benefits in these care scenarios a reality is available today. It is the practice of healthcare that needs to change, which will be greatly enabled by coverage and financing reform. For patients, this also means a behavioral change to take greater responsibility for attaining and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Fortunately, there are a growing number of applications and technology resources that are proving to be useful for encouraging healthy lifestyle behaviors, and effective for health maintenance and chronic disease management. Subscribe to our FREE Ezine and be eligible for Health News, discounted products/services and coupons related to your Health. We publish 24/7. HealthNewsDigest.com We videotape Press Conferences, produce Satellite MediaTour's, B-rolls, PSA's, - all with distribution: HealthyTelevisionProductionstvmike13@healthnewsdigest.com Top of Page 
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