Healthcare providers across the country are using technology platforms to curate a better patient experience beyond the clinic and operating room.
Consumer-focused projects often include online patient platforms, text message reminders and appointment confirmations, wayfinding apps to help patients navigate hospitals and more coordinated home care.
Here, five hospital and health system executives answer the question: what is the most interesting patient-facing innovation you are working on today?
Paul Testa, MD. CMIO of NYU Langone Health (New York City): We're excited by many different things we’re working on at NYU Langone Health, but we are particularly proud of the infrastructure and technology we’ve created that has helped enhance the patient and clinical experience through our digital health offerings. With the NYU Langone Health app, patients can log in using their MyChart account credentials to access their health record in a single place on their smartphone or tablet. Patients can schedule appointments, view test results, and even see their doctor by scheduling a video visit. Providers can access a patient’s enterprise health record in Epic as the single source of information where they can see all clinical data, and maintain consistent clinical workflows regardless of whether a patient appointment takes place in-person or via video visit.
All of this is done through the Epic EHR, our core Cisco communication infrastructure and our Vidyo platform for fully integrated video visits. A major component of this strategy was the decision to leverage our own key platforms to create a single, streamlined digital experience making it easy for both patients and providers to access and utilize.
Susan Murphy, RN, BSN. Chief Experience Officer at UChicago Medicine: In high-tech environments like hospitals, it is important for nurses, physicians, and other care team members to have high-touch moments with patients and families. To create these moments, we use many methods of engagement, including innovative technology. Among the human-centered innovations we use is a mobile rounding solution with sentiment analysis that helps nurse leaders proactively capture, address and track patient and family feedback in real-time. Mobile rounding is one of many patient-facing innovations within our Patient Experience and Engagement Program. We place a premium on building trusted relationships with our patients and empower them to share their voices and make shared decisions about their care plans.
Jonathan Bandel. Assistant Vice President of Strategic Service Lines at White Plains (N.Y.) Hospital: White Plains Hospital is currently using technology and telemedicine to take care of patients in their homes and avoid readmissions across multiple disease cohorts. The hospital was recently awarded a grant from the Institute for Health Improvement along with only 12 other academic medical centers across the United States to improve the quality and lower the cost of care for high-need patients.
The grant led to a partnership with a local paramedic company to provide in-home follow-up for high-risk patients after discharge. This provides the hospital with the ability to leverage its medical staff using virtual visits that are facilitated by the visiting EMT. Should the patient need to consult with a doctor, the EMT is able to instantly connect with a physician from a dedicated team at White Plains Hospital via video chat who can consult with the patient without the need for a hospital visit.
Kimberly Russo. CEO of George Washington University Hospital (Washington, D.C.): As an academic medical center, a major component of our mission at The George Washington University Hospital is to bring the latest technology to our patients in order to advance care, experience and outcomes. We are proud to be to be one of the first hospitals to bring various new and innovative capabilities to our patients. We recently became the first hospital in the country to use Novarad's augmented reality in surgery, as well as the first to use Surgical Theater's virtual reality in thoracic surgery. We also were the first in the world to use the Medrobotic Flex Robot for colorectal surgery. This flexible robot system reduces incisions as it allows physicians to access hard to reach areas.
In addition to our surgical capabilities, we use technology to enhance patient experience. For example, last year, we were the first hospital in D.C. to implement the NicView camera system which is a 24/7 camera stream, allowing families of NICU babies to see their child at all times. This has been really well received and is a differentiator for us in maternity care.
Matthew Fenty. Director of Partnerships and Strategic Alliances at St. Luke's University Health Network (Bethlehem, Pa.): There are several key projects that we are working on. The first is having a truly 'Open Table/Boarding Pass' type of experience for our patients when connecting with us. We are also looking at providing true hospital-level of care within a patient's home for situations where clinical oversight needs to occur, but the patient might recover best at home rather than in the ED.
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