Ashton Elder - Journey PX Patient Software

Hospitals today are using innovative patient engagement technology to elevate their patient experience. Recently we sat down with Linda Robinson, the Vice President of Clinical Excellence at MDM Healthcare to share some insights on the topic based on her 35 years of experience in nursing, patient- and family-centered care, and patient engagement technology. Robinson explained that there are several ways this technology supports hospitals in their quest to provide an exemplary patient experience. “Research tells us that patients want courtesy and the ability to participate in their care. Generally, there are three integrated areas to focus on when it comes to patient experience: quality, safety, and service,” she said. Robinson noted that many organizations use a framework of empathy to guide their patient experience strategies. She also stressed the importance of the four core principles outlined by The Institute of Patient and Family-Centered Care. These are respect and dignity, information sharing, participation, and collaboration.

Listening to patients' most pressing concerns is another way to ensure they will have a better day. Robinson addressed how patient engagement technology can solve a list of common patient complaints compiled by the Patient and Family Advisory Council at the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality at Johns Hopkins.

Patient Complaint: Not Keeping the Whiteboard Updated

Patients want the whiteboards in their hospital rooms to be kept up to date. They want to be provided with the most current information about their care team and daily plan of care.

Journey PX’s digital whiteboard My Day, Today closes gaps in communication inside the hospital room. Robinson explained that manually updated information on a dry-erase board risks a lack of information transfer between shift changes. Digital whiteboards eliminate this problem, as vital information is always on display for patients inside their rooms. Robinson states, “Our digital whiteboard integrates with the hospital's EMR, which is so important because it provides up-to-date information. Patients and their families have a way to see what is going on even when a nurse cannot be in the room,” she said. Robinson also outlined some examples. “If a doctor orders an x-ray, that will show up on the My Day, Today screen as soon as it is ordered. Another scenario is if the patient gets prescribed a new medication, the system can automatically assign the patient education about it which focuses on purpose and side effects. Individualized relevant education videos will appear on their digital whiteboard and they will be prompted to watch it at their convenience,” she said.

Hospital room with beds and comfortable medical equipped in a modern hospital

Patient Complaint: Lack of Clear Communication

Patients and their families want open communication from their care teams. They want to be updated if there are any changes in their condition and informed of care delays.

Journey PX Connect enables video calling for patients and families. It also provides a secure connection that allows for virtual visits and rounding by hospital care teams, all through the TV in the patient’s room. “If there is something that needs to be communicated quickly, care teams can get in the room virtually. Our Connect solution increases the flow of communication, lets patients see their loved ones, and keep them updated on the status of their care,” said Robinson. She also mentioned that digital whiteboards are a huge asset when addressing any communication problems. My Day, Today displays pertinent health information in the patient’s room and connects with most hospitals’ EMRs, providing patients and their families with vital health information updated in real-time. “Having that information displayed and readily available to patients and their families is so wonderful. It makes such a dramatic difference to them,” she said.

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Patient Complaint: Feeling Unengaged in Their Care

Patients want to be kept engaged in their care. They also want to make sure they understand their care plan, having health information provided to them in a language that is easy to understand.

Robinson explained how patient engagement technology addresses this concern. “Patients really do need to be involved in their daily plan of care. This supports the four core principles of patient and family-centered care. The patient is the captain of their care team, and Journey PX provides them with a variety of engagement tools in their room,” she said. She also explained that Journey PX is easy to use because it is intuitive. “There are buttons displayed on the patient’s television with categories and under each button is a number. To select their desired category, patients simply push the corresponding number on their pillow speaker, so it is quite easy to navigate,” she said. Simple, uncomplicated language is another aspect of Journey PX that really helps patients and their families. “Everything that goes up on the My Day, Today digital whiteboard is in a language that patients and families understand,” said Robinson. Patient engagement also drives quality, safety, and service. Journey PX My Stay includes an extensive education library that covers an extensive list of medical conditions and medications. This allows patients to become more empowered through health literacy.

Patient Complaint: Sleep and Noise Disturbances

Patients want hospital care teams to understand the importance of sleep for their recovery. They desire noise and other disturbances to be kept to a minimum during nighttime hours.

“We can see how providing an environment where a patient has a better quality of sleep is particularly important. Many hospitals have instituted programs to create healing environments for patients. Journey PX can prompt patients in the evening and let them know that their organization has a quiet at-night program,” said Robinson.

Another tool to improve patient sleep can be found inside the My Stay video library, which contains Medcalm’s calming videos for relaxation and meditation. This calming content has been proven to improve patients’ sleep.

My Stay also has a button on the home screen, My Service Requests, which can be customized to provide patients with a means of registering sleep and noise concerns right from their hospital bed.

patient room new journey and whiteboard screens

Patient Complaint: Loss of Personal Belongings

Patients want hospitals to have a system to keep track of their personal items. Making sure patient’s property is accounted for supports the quality of their care.

My Day, Today helps keep track of patients’ belongings. “When staff logs patients’ valuables into the EMR, it displays that on the My Day, Today screen. It has that information readily available each day. This is an effective way of keeping track of this because oftentimes patients think they came in with certain items and they were mistaken. Again, it keeps that communication clear, improving their overall experience,” said Robinson.

Patient Complaint: Messy Rooms

Another simple, yet important desire patients have is for their rooms to be kept clean.

The My Service Request button allows patients to submit service requests right from their hospital beds. Once a service request is lodged it is sent to the appropriate department, such as EVS, to be addressed in a timely manner, and response times can be tracked to gauge efficiency. It is important to note that hospitals can customize the questions used in the My Service Request button for their organization. “It gives hospital organizations the ability to focus on areas they are working on, ensuring they are providing the best experience for their patients,” said Robinson. She explained why this ability is so valuable when it comes to improving patient experience. “When you think of service recovery, which is the ability to identify a problem, fix it, and recover that experience of the patient, it is important that you do that before they are discharged. It is not ideal for hospitals to have a patient go home only to receive their HCAHPS survey weeks later and be asked about room cleanliness,” she said.

Patient Complaint: Lack of Orientation to Their Room and the Hospital

Patients want basic hospital information such as how to work their television and order meals.

Hospitals with Journey PX display a welcome video for patients as soon as they turn on their television. Robinson explained that these videos are impactful because “they allow the hospital to introduce themselves, state their mission, vision, and values.” My Stay’s welcome videos walk patients and their families through orientation to their rooms. They also provide patients with essential information such as how to work their pillow speaker and control the Journey PX patient engagement solution on their television. In addition, they display information about rounding times. Robinson explained, “every organization does things a little bit differently, but everything can be displayed on the My Day, Today screen. So again, this is another example of how Journey PX drives information through a central place in the patient’s room, providing them valuable information even when staff cannot be with them.”

To hear more from Linda on the topic, listen to our full interview on our PX Space podcast.

Calming content is part of a holistic approach to patient care, which addresses the complex spiritual, physical, social, and emotional needs of the patient further humanizing their care experience. An article published in the National Library of Medicine titled, Optimal Healing Environments reveals that calming content leads to more positive outcomes for patients. It states, “creating a healing space, one that evokes feelings of serenity, calm, and relaxation, can contribute to an environment that facilitates the innate healing process—a process of repair, recovery, and return to wholeness in mind, body, and spirit.”

Recently, we spoke with Amy Gordon-Fisher, Founder and CEO of Medcalm, a content partner at MDM Healthcare. Medcalm is an innovative company dedicated to bringing sound healing and relaxation programs to people wherever needed. Medcalm services hundreds of hospitals nationwide and is one of the premier audio/visual wellness solution providers worldwide. The Journey PX solution My Stay includes Medcalm’s calming and relaxation tools, which support a holistic approach to patient care.

“Amy has been a wealth of information and assistance in my practice as a clinician and a leader when it comes to providing a relaxing, therapeutic environment for patients and families in all settings, hospitals, treatment areas, clinics, waiting rooms, you name it, she has put calming content there. We take care of patients in a very clinical matter, but it is oftentimes initiatives like this, the calming content, that really helps provide patients and their families with peace of mind and helps them relax, which promotes healing,” stated Linda Robinson MSN, BSN, RN, the Vice President of Clinical Excellence at MDM Healthcare.

Gordon-Fisher explained that she started Medcalm 20 years ago while she was experiencing her mother's walk-through pancreatic cancer. “When we took her for her treatments, the front of the office was beautiful, however, the area where she was getting treatment was dismal. There was nothing comforting inside the patient’s treatment areas and many people were alone. I thought that this was not a very healthy environment for cancer patients trying to get better. I thought that there must be something better,” she said. Gordon-Fisher explained that she started the company because she believed her work in guided imagery and mindfulness meditation would help elevate the hospital environment and began creating a series of relaxing video and audio programs. She explained that once companies such as MDM Healthcare saw what she was doing, they began partnering with her to help put this content into hospitals and patient rooms.

Medcalm - Underwater Visions from Medcalm on Vimeo.

Gordon-Fisher explained that the practice of using relaxing content to help heal patients has now become part of a popular approach to care referred to as integrative medicine, “which means we walk hand in hand with other treatments, which is quite a change, and I think the patients and the families appreciate that,” she said.

Gordon-Fisher shared a letter from a patient’s family member to demonstrate how impactful healing content inside the hospital could be. They were writing to share their experience with one of Medcalm’s most popular calming videos, Underwater Visions. In the letter, they stated, “I am sure you folks produce these videos and then never know what impact they have on the people who watch them. We were at a hospital in Virginia, and previously my mom lived in Florida, so she really loves beach and water scenes. There is an aquarium in her assisted living community, and she enjoys that too. The underwater video was simply perfect for all of us. The videos are a nice anecdote to the sterile hospital environment. My mom has dementia, so a TV show with a narrative does not work for her, and she is hard of hearing and does not have her hearing aids in the hospital, so that makes the visual impact your videos have even more important.”

Calming content can also neutralize the chaotic hospital environment which can be harmfully distracting, cause anxiety and interrupt patient’s sleep. "On average, a patient endures 135 different alarms each day. Hospitals are often louder than a highway during rush hour, and sleep deprivation is a common complaint. The cacophony is not only bothersome, but can endanger lives, as many caretakers and doctors suffer from what they call alarm fatigue. They hear so many abrasive sounds that they simply ignore up to 10% of important lifesaving alarms,” said Gordon-Fisher. Restful sleep is part of healing and Medcalm’s content has been proven to aid in helping patients’ sleep. Gordon-Fisher referenced a case study on the subject in her interview. “There was a study at a VA hospital where patients who were having trouble sleeping were offered a choice between listening to Medcalm programs or taking sleep medication, and it revealed that patients were sleeping better listening to the programs. Also, it is much better for patients than sleep medication,” she said.

Gordon-Fisher also explained the science behind the healing power of the nature videos shown on the televisions inside patient rooms and on the digital signage inside hospitals. She affirmed the fact that calming content provides so much more than just distraction, it has been proven to support healing. “We have some valuable information on why nature is so impactful and what it can do for the patient. Hospital patients have no chance of getting out into nature, so we try to provide that through our content. Just showing content with nature on the televisions inside the patient’s room achieves positive outcomes on psychological relaxation and stress recovery. Studies have proven the healing benefits of viewing nature and how simply viewing that scenery led to a more relaxed body response,” she said.

“Patients are basically captives in their rooms, and what a hospital chooses to put on is in many ways critical to their health,” said Gordon-Fisher. Journey PX humanizes care through patient engagement technology, and this is accomplished partly by partnering with premium content providers like Medcalm. “It is so beneficial having these calming videos in the patient’s room and accessible through our patient engagement solution, Journey PX. It also allows for the content to be individualized. The patients get a package of videos to choose from, and so do their families. It provides a much better atmosphere inside the hospital room,” stated Linda Robinson MSN, BSN, RN, the Vice President of Clinical Excellence at MDM Healthcare.

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Journey PX is committed to addressing the complex needs of patients across the continuum of care. As previously highlighted, the Journey PX solution My Stay offers patients Medcalm’s calming videos for relaxation and meditation, as well as an extensive library of patient education videos, which allow patients to access the education they need to become more informed about their condition and proactive about their care. Patients can obtain the emotional support they need by connecting with loved ones virtually in their hospital room with Journey PX’s Connect solution. The Journey PX solution My Day Today, is a digital whiteboard that integrates with the hospital’s EMR and provides accurate health information to patients and their families in real-time. This offers patients peace of mind by providing them with vital health information.

You can hear more from Amy Gordon-Fisher about the healing power of calming content, including the origins of sound healing music and the science behind the relaxation response in our PX Space podcast interview. View more information about Medcalm and sample some of their calming videos on their website.

Nurse leaders have faced unprecedented challenges in today’s healthcare system. Recently, MDM Healthcare’s VP of Clinical Excellence, Linda Robinson MSN, BSN, RN was able to sit down with Allison Schlinkert, MSN, RN, NPD-BC, Director of Nursing Practice and Education at Bon Secours Mercy Health. The two discussed the topic of being a servant leader and what that means in relationship-based care.

Relationship-based care can transform nursing culture. It does this by improving patient and staff satisfaction, safety, and the quality of care. This is accomplished by strengthening every relationship within an organization. Schlinkert shared why this leadership style is so important in today’s ever-changing, challenging healthcare landscape. “Being a servant leader means that you value the relationships you create and work to build bi-directional trust to optimize your team's performance. It's about establishing relationships with your team, putting those relationships first and investing in them so you can optimize your team's performance,” she said.

The issues of resiliency and leadership in nursing have become increasingly important in today’s healthcare climate. In fact, they are part of the new quadruple aim outlined in the framework to optimize healthcare performance, which was developed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) in 2007 and recently revised to include healthcare team well-being in the framework. “I strongly believe that the support that is shown to you through the whirlwind makes it more manageable,” said Schlinkert.

Robinson noted, “So many times nurses leave or stay because of their leaders. When you create relationships, you create bonds and build trust, and that's so important, and it makes a significant difference in nurses' lives. These practices are truly transformational for new nurses, and nurses that have worked in the trenches for a long time, because many do not get that support.”

Schlinkert explained that establishing bi-directional trust with your team is essential for nurse leaders. “My team is composed of nurse professional development practitioners who support multiple units, and that can be challenging. You have to give the same touch and feel and support to each unit across the board. One of the ways that I encourage my team to be servant leaders is to scratch beneath the surface with the operational leaders they support and get to know their managers. I encourage them to spend a few minutes touching base with their leaders about once every two weeks and show genuine interest in their lives,” she said.

Nurse leaders are stepping up to address the problems they are facing in this current healthcare climate with elevated leadership practices such as the ones outlined by Schlinkert. Another tool nurses have to help them rise to new challenges is technology. Technology such as Journey PX, a patient engagement solution that has the capability to support care delivery by leaning down clinical workflows, automating the patient education process, offloading non-clinical tasks, and offering the capability of video connect into the patient room. This reduces exposure while still maintaining that face-to-face personal contact sentiment. Journey PX helps save nurses and the healthcare team valuable time and steps during this critical period.

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In addition to building trust and communication, Schlinkert revealed several other practices that she has implemented to support the nurses on her team. “My team rounds on all new hire nurses for their first year of employment. This was something that we identified as a priority prior to March of 2020 when the pandemic hit, and really has shifted from an initiative to a core job responsibility for my nurse professional development practitioners,” she said. “Rounding serves as a safe space to share successes and barriers, review unit enculturation, and identify gaps in education that my team is often able to close,” she continued.

Robinson noted that the practices outlined by Schlinkert support core issues hospitals are currently facing which include, retention of nurses, the nursing shortage, and addressing the experience complexity gap among nurses. “These practices give new nurses a safe space. It also helps create a supportive culture that spreads,” she said.

Another leadership practice Schlinkert began two years ago is a program called Call to Shine, which works to build support and comradery “Call to Shine is an internal recognition board and it really is a way to call out and recognize associates, coworkers, peers, and colleagues new to practice nurses when they do excellent in a simulation, you know, the sky's the limit as it relates to this recognition,” Schlinkert explained. “A lot of people just want to be recognized for the work that they do and Call to Shine was a great way to do this and it has picked up so much steam since it began. This is how we support and lift our managers up so they can know about all those remarkable things,” she continued. The program also allows participants to earn rewards through a points system, so they are rewarded for doing exceptional work.

Robinson expressed that the way to positively impact nurses is through leadership, mentorship, and readily available, effective resources. Technology is one resource that can dramatically improve working conditions for nurses, helping to optimize their time and enhance their ability to assist patients and work with their teams. “At MDM, our experienced team is dedicated to healthcare innovation and transformation. The power of technology in healthcare settings is most impactful when incorporating clinical nurses, and bedside nurses. We know that nurses are the cornerstone of the healthcare system, and right now they are stretched thin during this unprecedented time, and we want to help support them,” Robinson said.

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You can hear more from Allison Schlinkert about being a Servant Leader, including effective mentorship, work culture, and more in our latest PX Space podcast interview.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. There are over 3.8 million breast cancer survivors in the United States, and one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. Recently we were able to sit down and interview Dr. Erin Elder, whose specialty is breast surgical oncology and the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. Dr. Elder practices at Lieselotte Tansey Breast Center at Ochsner in New Orleans, LA. She is a member of the Society of Surgical Oncology and the American Society of Breast Surgeons.

According to statistics published by the National Breast Cancer Foundation, “On average, every 2 minutes a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States.” The organization also notes that in this year alone a staggering 43,550 women will die from breast cancer in the U.S. Dr. Elder explains, “A lot of breast cancer patients are healthy women, and this is probably the worst thing that has ever happened to them in their lives. They are great patients, very motivated to take on this challenge and it is a rewarding field to be in because the patients are so great.”

Detection

Early detection is key to helping patients who are diagnosed with breast cancer in order to have the best chance of success. Dr. Elder advised what to look for when it comes to detection. “A lot of patients have no symptoms, and their breast cancers are found just based on their screening mammogram. Some patients do have symptoms, usually, that is a palpable mass or a change in the thickness of their breasts or some changes to the skin. Some patients do have pain, but that's actually fairly rare,” she said. One way patients can be proactive about their health is to get regular mammograms. Dr. Elder advised patients to follow the national guidelines, which encourage women to get regular mammograms at the age of 40. “I usually see patients getting mammograms once a year, starting at age 40. Patients younger than 40 sometimes are recommended for screening mammograms or even MRIs usually based on individual risk factors. Primary care doctors will often use a special calculator that gives patients a risk score if they start seeing risk factors like multiple family members with breast cancer or other factors. If a patient's found to have a greater than the lifetime risk of 20% for breast cancer, they often can start mammograms at 30 and also can start MRIs at 25. So, there are some options out there if you feel like you are at elevated risk. It might be worth asking your primary care doctor if they could calculate a risk score for you to see if you have fallen in that category of greater than 20%,” she said. Dr. Elder stated that while the national average risk is around 12%, a lot of insurance companies will cover additional early screening if the patient’s risk factor is greater than 20%. Sometimes patients also get genetic testing and Dr. Elder revealed that the price for those tests has come down significantly over the last few years, opening more availability for patients to receive them and more insurance to cover the cost.
Lastly, while men do not need to get regular mammograms, they should note that while breast cancer mainly affects women, men are also at risk for breast cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, more than 2,700 men are diagnosed with breast cancer each year and approximately 530 men die from the disease.

What to Ask Your Doctor

Dr. Elder has some advice for those who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. “I think the main thing to consider with breast cancer is the importance of understanding your individual tumor characteristics and how that impacts your outcomes, and also your choices in treatment,” she said. “I think it's just important for patients to understand their particular cancer since it is so individualized,” she continued.
Dr. Elder emphasized that patients should not focus too much on the stage of their cancer. “I feel like people focus too much on what stage their cancer is. Luckily, throughout most of the stages of breast cancer, patients do very well and have high survival rates. I don't want patients to get bogged down on the stage because even if they are at a slightly higher stage, they still have a great chance of doing well,” she said.

Holistic Care/ Education

Dr. Elder supports a comprehensive approach to patient care, an approach supported by the patient experience solutions offered by Journey PX. These solutions offer patients a more holistic approach to healing while they're in the hospital. “When patients get cancer diagnoses, they often have a lot of anxiety, which is very understandable. It’s helpful for them to have these tools to help them cope.

Tools such as the Journey PX solution My Stay, which offers patients calming videos for relaxation and meditation, as well as an extensive library of patient education videos which allows patients to access the education, they need in order to become more informed about their condition and proactive about their care. Dr Elder explained why this is so helpful for breast cancer patients. “A lot of patients are interested in what they can do personally to help with their cancer. I think a lot of people feel a lack of control over their bodies when they get diagnosed. Therefore, a lot of people are asking questions such as: What should I eat? What should I do? Is there anything I can do other than what the doctors recommend that would help me? So, I think a lot of patients are interested in holistic approaches, or what we call integrative health solutions. So definitely if a patient was diagnosed with cancer, it would be helpful to have these types of resources,” she said.

Other valuable tools offer cancer patients peace of mind by providing them with information such as the Journey PX solution My Day Today, which is a digital whiteboard that integrates with the hospital’s EMR and provides accurate health information to patients and their families in real time. Lastly, patients can obtain the emotional support they need by connecting with loved ones virtually in their hospital room with Journey PX’s Connect solution. All of these tools provide patients with a holistic approach to care that really supports their well-being, and in turn, their recovery.

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The in-room patient experience technology solutions such as those offered by Journey PX are helpful in a variety of other ways as certain scenarios come about for breast cancer patients that require special support. Dr. Elder explained these. “Sometimes patients don't have the resources to get their screening mammograms, and sometimes they do show up with a mass at the Emergency Department. It’s hard for those patients because they might not be seeing a specialist at that time. So, they can really get some of that diagnostic information and support from these resources. I also think using this type of system is helpful because people learn in different ways. I find a lot of times in appointments with patients it takes about an hour, and they get all this information, and it is hard for them to absorb it. ” she said. It might be helpful to be able to read it or to have something that they can watch at their own pace so that they can get information in a different way that may be better suited to their learning style,” she said.

A system like Journey PX also supports the interoperability of hospital care teams, which allows for lean clinical workflows, better communication, and a better patient experience. Nurses can support the patient by assigning them an education that is particular to their surgery. The My Stay solution offers a video on mastectomy education after every mastectomy, which gives the patient the ability to watch that education over and over if they would like. Journey PX solutions also support the patient’s families by providing them with education and information as well.

You can hear more from Dr. Elder about breast cancer awareness, including some of the latest technologies that are being used to combat the disease in our latest PX Space podcast interview. View more information on Breast Cancer Awareness month and support the cause on the Susan G. Komen website.

Listen to the full interview on the PX Space podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music.

The pandemic accelerated the adoption of technology for patient care, which has been transformative. This innovative technology supports a more patient-centered approach to care. According to an article published by the National Academy of Medicine, “The evolving digital foundation of a person-centered healthcare system is making it possible to envision a system that is more holistic, centers on the needs of the patient and their support structure, and embraces a longitudinal view of health, wellness, and social equity, in contrast to the mostly fragmented, reactive health care system that currently exists.”

The VP of Clinical Excellence at MDM Healthcare, Linda Robinson, MSN, BSN, RN shed some light on the situation in a recent interview. “I've been a nurse for over 35 years and things have changed considerably. It seems like it has been on the verge of transformation for years, but in a matter of months the pandemic broke down long-standing barriers and it just accelerated healthcare technology at a pace that we could never have imagined, and it was out of survival. We had to be able to track data and take care of patients in a way that we never did before. So, we were forced to make fast strategic decisions to meet demands during the pandemic.”
In this new post-pandemic healthcare landscape, patients' perceptions of technology have changed when it comes to their care. Robinson explained, “All of the new technologies that have happened during COVID have really opened the patient's eyes.” She outlined six areas of transformation highlighted below.

1. Shift to a Patient-Centered Model in Healthcare

The new healthcare model is a consumer-centered model. Robinson explained, “This is the new patient-centered model that drives self-care. These patient-centered models have been around for a while but have not always taken off as well as they should. However, with the use of technology, the patient is more engaged and empowered than ever. The patient is the captain of their care team,” she said. Patients can now use an array of services and apps and other technology to get the information that they need. “That really supports the four core principles of patient and family-centered care. It's going to be designed around the consumer's needs, not the hospital's needs. Hospitals used to be designed around the people that worked inside them now they are designed around the patient,” Robinson continued.
The shift to the patient-centered model is a proactive shift designed around prevention and well-being, rather than a reactive approach. “This is something we’ve been trying to move to in healthcare for years,” said Robinson.

2. The Rise of Telehealth

Many patients tried virtual care for the first time during the height of the pandemic. Most found it to their liking, and now millions of patients are opting for virtual visits. According to a recent McKinsey & Company report, “Forty percent of patients in May 2021 said they believe they will continue to use telehealth in the pandemic’s aftermath. In November 2021, 55 percent of patients said they were more satisfied with telehealth/virtual care visits than with in-person appointments. Thirty-five percent of consumers are currently using other digital services, such as ordering prescriptions online and home delivery.” Robinson expanded on why telehealth is empowering patients. “Patients are searching for answers on Google, and Google is great, but they really should get their health information from their provider because that is the best source of information, and it needs to be tailored to the patient. The information patients need concerning their care is not one size fits all.”

3. Change in Outlook About Data Sharing

Patients are now more willing to share genetic information. In fact, research recently published by PEW found that “81% of adults support increased access to health information for patients and providers and those survey respondents said that “the coronavirus pandemic made them more likely to support efforts that enable data-sharing among a patient’s providers and let people download their personal data from EHRs to apps on smartphones and other devices.” Robinson explained what this shift means about the future of patient care. “This is huge because this is something that patients have classically been very reluctant to do. One of the reasons this is so important is because this supports precision medicine or what I would call personalized medicine,” she said. The goal of precision medicine is to predict, prevent and treat disease, but it does it in a personalized way. “So, they're basically looking at your genetic makeup to find out what your treatment plan is,” Robinson continued.

4. Tech Helps Manage Chronic Conditions

According to a recent study published in the National Library of Medicine, “Innovative technology is central in reshaping chronic care. Technology is improving provider practice and helping patients live more successfully with chronic disease.” Those who are managing a chronic condition are more eager to embrace and see value in new technology. “If you think about these chronic disease patients, most of them are elderly, and most of them see on average more than seven different physicians. Research is showing that rapidly advancing consumer technologies that leverage mobile sensors, geolocation, tagging, personal profiles, and streaming data, illustrate information technology, and it’s really making a difference for these patients,” Robinson explained.

5. Patients More Likely to Switch Providers

Today’s patients are more proactive and empowered about their healthcare and are now more likely to switch care providers than before COVID. Survey data published in February of 2022 stated that 69% of patients would switch care providers to have access to enhanced services. “Classically, patients have gone to one doctor their entire life, and have not changed their physician. However, now they're looking for answers and demanding more. They are knowledgeable consumers, and more likely to switch doctors if they are looking for one who offers virtual visits,” said Robinson. A recent Deloitte article suggests the COVID-19 pandemic forced changes on the healthcare system that will have lasting impacts, one of which is a more empowered consumer. It states, “The public health crisis has called on the system to provide consumers access to care from home, and in some ways, encouraged consumers to have more agency in making decisions about their health.”

6. Advancement of Technology

According to a recent Forbes article, “The emergence of digital technology, including cloud, mobile, and data analytics, is breaking down those barriers and providing richer, more effective, and less expensive patient experiences.” Consumers want a multi-touch, digitally enabled experience, and they're willing to shop for it. Enhanced patient engagement using patient technology also leads to better outcomes and supports health equity. Robinson shed some light on this topic. “We must learn how to expand our thinking and see how technology can benefit the patient and their loved ones. There is a wealth of information and engagement they get with the new technology. It closes those gaps in communication and provides a more efficient, streamlined experience. It does this not only for patients and their loved ones but for doctors, nurses, clinicians, and the healthcare organization.” Technology solutions such as Journey PX’s digital whiteboard, My Day Today and Connect, which allows for virtual visits and rounding, create lean workflows which support nurse wellbeing and aid hospital care teams which are struggling due to the nursing shortage.

New technological advancements, changing consumer attitudes, workforce shortages, and the COVID-19 pandemic have all led to a transformation in patient care in recent years. “We're on the brink of the future and it's exciting. "We are in a moment where innovators of technology can broaden their thinking and we can really make strides in every healthcare sector,” said Robinson.

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Listen to the full interview on the PX Space podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music.

Hospital workplace violence has been a problem in the healthcare industry for decades, but the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the situation. The VP of Clinical Excellence at MDM Healthcare, Linda Robinson, MSN, BSN, RN has been an advocate for the issue of hospital workplace violence throughout her career. She consulted with other state nursing organizations on healthcare workplace violence legislation. She co-authored a published national workplace violence research study for the National Emergency Nurses Association. Also, she has also been named an ANCC Magnet exemplar, which was obtained for workplace safety violence prevention work. These are just some of her many achievements as they relate to this topic. Robinson sat down with us for an interview to discuss the issue and suggest ways hospitals could combat the problem and move forward to a safer, healthier hospital environment. “I worked in the Emergency Department for many years, and I also worked in the ICU prior to that. Healthcare safety and security really became something that I was faced with early on. When I went to the emergency department, I was amazed at how violent it was, and so I have really dedicated a lot of my career to addressing the issue,” she said.

Incidents of workplace violence against healthcare workers had been on the rise before the pandemic. A report published by the U.S. The Bureau of Labor in 2018 stated that the issue was of growing concern in the industry and that healthcare workers were “ five times more likely to experience workplace violence than employees in all other industries.” This was the state of conditions leading up to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020. Robinson explained that the stressful working conditions at hospitals were intensified by the pandemic, which ultimately resulted in more verbal, and even physical abuse of healthcare workers. “I noticed the problem when I started at the Emergency Department in 2003, but since COVID, it seems to have just really gotten much worse. A lot of that has been caused by fear of the disease, and stress from the quarantine measures,” Robinson said. Staggering statistics continue to be reported relating to this issue. A recent article published by healthcare research group Press Ganey, revealed more than two nursing personnel were assaulted every hour in the second quarter of 2022. That equates to roughly 57 assaults per day, 1,739 assaults per month, and 5,217 assaults per quarter.

of nurses reported experiencing physical violence (Website)

Robinson noted that hospital violence comes in a variety of forms, all of which are dangerous. “Violence is not always physical. If you have apathy towards verbal abuse you create an environment that is conducive to the escalation of that verbal abuse to physical assault,” she said. Another aspect of the problem is the underreporting of incidents by healthcare workers. In many cases, nurses don't even report incidents of violence. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, workplace violence is a recognized hazard in the healthcare industry, and unfortunately, many more incidents probably go unreported. “Studies show us that 30% of nurses do not report incidents of workplace violence. Nurses believe it’s part of the job. In a lot of organizations reporting is voluntary, so there's a lack of reporting policy,” said Robinson.
Robinson stressed the need for hospital leadership to take action. “If you're in a leadership position where you can advocate for nursing and hospital safety, it is imperative that you do that,” she said. “If a nurse cannot give care or leaves nursing because of an injury or because they don't feel safe, then we're losing good nurses,” she continued.

Many advocates in the industry including Robinson point out that there are no federal laws protecting healthcare workers from this type of violence, and that part of solving the issue is a legislative response. A recent report published by the American Hospital Association (AHA) states, “Hospitals, health systems and their employees have expressed a strong interest in the enactment of a federal law that would protect health care workers from violence and intimidation, just as current federal law protects airline and airport workers. Congress should enact the Safety from Violence for Healthcare Employees (SAVE) Act, which provides protections similar to those that exist for flight crews, flight attendants and airport workers.” In addition to a legislative response, a Sentinel Event Alert, which was revised since the COVID pandemic, was published by the Joint Commission. It created standards for a framework to guide hospitals and critical access hospitals in dealing with violence.

Robinson drew on her expertise as a longtime advocate for the issue and explained that there are several things that hospitals can do to establish safer working environments. “Hospitals need to talk to their staff and give them a seat at the table so that they can be honest about what's happening. Safety is everyone's first priority, and there should be a zero-tolerance policy for violence,” she said. It's very important that we take it seriously and we intervene, and we offer services to staff who have gone through workplace violence incidents,” she continued. Robinson also suggested that hospitals focus on teaching staff how to identify and prevent dangerous conditions in the early stages before the violence escalates and injuries occur. She also suggested hospitals analyze the conditions that contributed to violent incidents after they occur, implement a behavioral emergency response team, educate workers on de-escalation techniques., and invest in security infrastructure.

The Role of Technology and How MDM Healthcare Can Help

Robinson suggested that the innovative use of technology could help improve conditions in the hospital environment, which would also help to reduce violent incidents. “I think that's where MDM comes in and I'll tell you that's one of the reasons I’m there. I'm passionate about patient and family-centered care, and patient experience, but again, I am a passionate advocate for nursing. It's so exciting to be working with technology that can really help give people a better quality of care,” she said.
Technology helps nurses work more efficiently, which is even more beneficial in light of the current nursing shortage. “Nurses can't be everything to everybody. They can't be in that room all the time, they have a number of patients to care for. When you think of patient engagement technology, it provides a lot of information in that room that really helps the patient not have to call out to their nurse constantly,” said Robinson.

Information sharing also keeps patients and families calm by providing them peace of mind. Vital health data can be shared in real-time using Journey PX’s digital whiteboard solution, My Day Today. “The digital whiteboard has a patient’s daily plan of care, everything that's going to happen, and many other important answers to patients' questions. On that digital whiteboard, but then also within that system, there is a whole lot of information about the hospital,” said Robinson. A variety of questions are answered by the patient engagement technology, the technology also allows patients to access services such as meals, housekeeping and entertainment. “It keeps tension down and fosters a more positive work environment, as patients don’t need to call their nurse for everything they need,” Robinson noted. This technology also helps calm the confusion and frustration that can sometimes be felt by a patient's family and care partners as it also keeps them informed.

The sharing of vital information is only one of many technology solutions used in Journey PX, which helps cultivate a more tranquil hospital environment. “Another thing I would mention are the distraction pieces that are available in Journey PX solution My Stay, This solution includes access to calming videos on demand to help patients relax, and a vast library of Hollywood and patient education videos to help keep patients entertained,” said Robinson. Journey PX also allows the hospital to send out vital safety messages to each patient when an emergency takes place, such as a hurricane, tornado, or other crisis. In addition, the technology provides a reminder for patients when visiting hours are coming to a close so they can obtain a visitor’s badge for essential family members if needed. Robinson knows that technology can make a difference in creating a safer environment at hospitals. “Those prompts can go out to every patient at the facility, really transforming the environment,” she said. Keeping patients connected with loved ones and care providers virtually is another technology solution that helps create a more pleasant hospital environment. The Journey PX Connect platform enables video calling for patients, care teams and families. This solution is another example of how technology can help in decreasing a patient's fear and frustrations while in the hospital. “The ability to do that innovatively with a patient engagement technology solution is pretty endless. At Journey PX we ask hospital organizations to provide us with their key quality and safety issues they want to address, and we brainstorm with them and design the solution to meet their needs and to meet their patients and their staff's needs,” Robinson stated.

The issue of hospital workplace violence is complex and combating the problem requires a variety of actions be taken, such as those outlined above. At MDM Healthcare, we are proud to know our technology solutions can help be a part of a comprehensive strategy to address the problem. For Robinson, her passion for this issue and years dedicated to it have been fueled by her love for her patients and fellow nurses. “I always tell nurses this: as far back as 1893, nurse and advocate Florence Nightingale, had the intent to allow nurses the autonomy of purpose to advocate for patients. However, she also said to advocate for the nursing profession, and that's something that frontline nurses, all nurses must do,” she said.

Listen to the full interview on the PX Space podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music.

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The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality makes an important distinction: that patient experience is not the same as patient satisfaction (although the concepts are related).

Patient satisfaction focuses on a person’s expectations and to what degree they were met. So, two different people could receive the same care but, because of their differing expectations, can have different levels of satisfaction.

Patient experience, meanwhile, focuses on the interactions they have with the healthcare system: doctors, nurses, and more. These range from the patient’s ability to seamlessly get timely appointments, information, and more. In other words, improving the patient experience is in your control while patient satisfaction is connected to the experience but is filtered through each individual patient’s perspective.

When evaluating your patient experience delivery at your facilities, focus on how well the patients receive “care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs and values.”

Now, here are six reasons why your facility should focus on patient experience.

#1 The Right Thing to Do
Short and simple! Providing a quality patient experience is the right thing to do.

#2 Better Health Outcomes
Quality experiences can lead to more positive health reports. One study focuses on people hospitalized because of a heart attack—and a year after discharge, they have, on average, more positive outcomes if their patient experience was positive.

#3 Patient Loyalty
Just like with any other type of relationship, patients are more loyal to their healthcare providers when they receive a good experience. One study shows that patients who received the lowest quality of experience were three times more likely to switch physicians than those who received the highest quality.

#4 Staff Satisfaction / Lower Turnover
Healthcare staff don’t want to provide a poor quality experience for their patients. When healthcare facilities provide their clinicians and other employees with what they need to provide better care, they’re more likely to stay. One hospital focusing on improving work-related systems and processes reduced employee turnover by 4.7 percent.

# 5 Reduced Malpractice Rates
One study shows that, as the quality of patient experience drops, the chances of being named in a malpractice suit increases. When using patient-reported scores to calibrate this, each one-point drop in scoring increases the risk of a lawsuit by 21.7 percent. Looked at from the opposite perspective, the risk of a lawsuit drops by that amount each time that satisfaction with the patient experience increases.

#6 People Value Engaging Patient Education
According to a National Research Corporation (NRC) survey, cited by the National Library of Medicine, patients value physicians who explain things well. In fact, that’s the most important criterion for choosing a doctor. Poor levels of patient education can lead to unrealistic expectations—and then dissatisfaction when expectations aren’t met.

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Lack of Physician Time
In a national survey by The Physicians Foundation, only 11 percent of patients felt as though they had enough time in a physician-patient appointment to receive the highest standards of care. (Fourteen percent of physicians said the same thing.) So, on the one hand, 90 percent of patients believe that a solid relationship between a patient and physician is the “most essential element of a quality health care system,” but time is clearly being perceived as a significant barrier.
The solution: interactive patient education.

Components of Interactive Patient Education
Interactive patient education makes educational resources available to patients at their bedsides. This information can be delivered in the hospital as well as in a discharged patient’s home through interactive technologies, and educational materials are targeted to the patient’s specific conditions and treatments.

Interactive patient education is, as the name implies, interactive—and it’s also patient-centric, providing numerous benefits.

Benefits of Patient-Centric Care
Healthcare services that put the patient in the center—such as what can happen when quality patient education technology is used—lead to better informed patients. This, in turn, allows them to better understand their health conditions and treatment options, leading to better decision making by the patient.

Benefits continue from there. People who receive interactive patient education are more likely to consistently follow their treatment plans while being less likely to stop taking their prescriptions. Treatment compliance naturally creates efficiencies that can lower costs for patients and healthcare facilities while reducing provider liability. This can also boost patient satisfaction.

What’s most important to more fully realize these benefits: high quality patient education software.

Journey PX: Patient Education Software
Journey PX solves the problems associated with time-pressured physicians, allowing healthcare professionals to provide premium care by leveraging the power of quality patient education technology. When interactive patient education is readily available, patients can turn to this instead of searching for it on Google. Reliability of information found by surfing the web is uncertain, if not worse than uncertain—with inaccurate information having the potential to harm the person’s treatment.

Interactive patient information found in the Journey PX data, though, is continually updated so it always contains the latest in medical developments. So, when your healthcare facilities use this technology, you can share information with your patients with confidence.

Additional benefits of Journey PX include how it:

Can help healthcare facilities to overcome language barriers: When a patient is unable to understand instructions because they aren’t presented in a language they’re comfortable with, providing quality care can be extremely challenging. To address that issue, Journey PX is available in numerous languages with closed captioning available for the hearing impaired.
provides seamless access to relevant information: Journey PX is easy and convenient to use. Our cloud-based technology makes the system accessible through any mobile device, just about anywhere around the globe. It’s easy to implement in healthcare facilities, and intuitive for patients to use.
Fulfills all of your patient education technology needs
This is a turnkey solution that provides the entire range of interactive patient education needs.

To discuss how Journey PX can help your healthcare facilities to provide world-class education to your patients, please contact us online or call (800) 359-6741.

The issues facing nurses today are something very dear to the heart of Linda Robinson, the VP of Clinical Excellence at MDM Healthcare. Robinson reflected on the concepts of resilience and well-being as they relate to the current struggle hospital care teams are facing. “I have been a nurse for 35 years, and I was at the bedside for at least 28 of those years. I used to think that when the Emergency Department was falling apart and they needed help and they would say, Hey Linda, can you pick up four hours? We're getting killed here, We're diverting to another hospital. I'd say to myself, I can do this, another four hours can’t hurt me,” she said. “Overworked nurses often don't realize that they are putting their own mental health and health at risk,” she continued.

Nursing leaders continue to discuss the concepts of resilience and well-being as they relate to their profession. “Resilience meant to me that I had strength, perseverance, and resolve. It was a never give up kind of word,” stated Robinson, and she emphasized that there has been a shift in the healthcare community towards focusing on the well-being of nurses. Robinson explains the impact of the pandemic in 2020 resulted in the current situation many hospitals are facing today, nursing burnout which has led to a nursing shortage. “The inexperienced nurses at the beginning of COVID hit the ground running, and they're probably still running, wondering, is this really what I signed up for? If you look at the definition of resilience, It's the capacity of a person to maintain their core purpose and integrity in the face of dramatically changed circumstances. The question is how do we move that inexperienced workforce forward? We can not leave nurses behind on an island or hung out dry. They can't be in that room with a full code all alone. They need a team behind them. That team is the hospital, nursing leadership, and management,” she said. The focus now has to be on nurses' well-being.

Robinson believes that the way to positively impact nurses is through leadership, mentorship, and readily available, effective resources. Technology is one resource that can dramatically improve working conditions for nurses, helping to optimize their time and enhance their ability to assist patients and work with their team. “At MDM, our experienced team is dedicated to healthcare innovation and transformation. The power of technology in healthcare settings is most impactful when incorporating clinical nurses, and bedside nurses. We know that nurses are the cornerstone of the healthcare system, and right now they're stretched thin during this unprecedented time, and we want to help support them,” Robinson said.

Journey PX, our patient engagement solution has the capability to support care delivery by leaning down clinical workflows, automating the patient education process, offloading non-clinical tasks, and offering the capability of video connect into the patient room. This reduces exposure while still maintaining that face-to-face personal contact sentiment. We can help save nurses and the healthcare team valuable time and steps during this critical period.

Copy of Untitled (Blog Graphic) (Website)

Sentinel Event Alert published recently by the Joint Commission outlined
Five Key Ways to Support Health Care Workers

1. Foster open and transparent communication to build trust, reduce fears, build morale, and sustain an effective workforce.
2. Remove barriers to health care workers seeking mental health services and develop systems that support institutional, as well as individual resilience.
3. Protect workers’ safety using the National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH) Hierarchy of Controls framework.
4. Develop a flexible workforce; evaluate the work being performed and determine if it can be performed remotely.
5. Provide clinicians and others with opportunities to collaborate, lead and innovate.

Listen to the full interview on the PX Space podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music.

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We recently sat down with the VP of Clinical Excellence at MDM Healthcare, Linda Robinson to discuss how patient engagement drives hospital quality and safety initiatives. Robinson, an award-winning nurse, has worked in the patient care industry for 35 years. She has done extensive research in the area throughout her career. “When we have patients become active participants in their care, that is when they start to understand what they need to do to get themselves better. I would say to patients, healthcare doesn't just happen to you, it’s happening with you,” she said. Robinson illustrated the idea that humanizing care means empowering, educating, and engaging patients in their care to support the patient experience. “That's bringing humanity into the care at the bedside, and that really helps us drive quality and safety. All those things are fundamentally important for patients today,” she said.

One tool healthcare providers have today to help drive better outcomes and elevate the patient experience is technology. Technology plays a role in helping to empower patients and develop that patient experience, especially as it relates to quality and safety. “The healthcare industry should be open to embracing technology. The rest of the world outside the hospital walls is really embracing technology and hospitals are just now starting to do that,” Robinson said. “What I think is really exciting is that technology has the ability to be in that patient room. Even when the healthcare staff or the clinicians are not. So, it can help personalize, humanize, and demystify the healthcare experience because that information is in the room in real-time and at their fingertips,” she continued. She further explained that while technology is an amazing tool for healthcare providers when it comes to dealing with patients, it should be intuitive. “Technology should be very simple to use. A patient should not have to learn how to use something in the room when they’re sick and frankly overwhelmed. It should be as easy as working a television remote,” she said.

One type of technology that is changing the landscape for acute care facilities is digital whiteboards. A digital whiteboard, unlike the grease board on the wall, is kept up in real-time, and it's there for the patient to view throughout the day. Digital whiteboards connect with hospitals' EMRs and are updated in real-time which provides vital information to hospital care teams, patients, and their families. Robinson explained how digital whiteboards are used to enhance the patient experience and drive better quality and safety outcomes. “When patients go to the hospital so many times, they don't know what's going happen. They think: I don't know, nobody tells me anything. Technology can help us hard-wire bedside shift reports. Every patient should get a bedside shift report. They are one of the biggest drivers of quality and safety. Patients can be assured that the technology the digital whiteboard displays in their room is going to be up to date. They can see tests that are ordered, activities that they need to do, and the goals that have been set for them,” she said. Digital whiteboards also provide patients and their families with key information and answers to any questions they may have. This information at their bedside comforts them, keeps them informed, and really transforms their care. It’s a win-win situation for both patients and hospital care teams as Robinson explains, “These technology tools help drive quality and safety from a patient's perspective, but then also from a healthcare provider's perspective.”

Technology is now allowing patients to become more empowered by getting educated on their conditions. “Delivering information in a timely manner in digestible bites for the patient at home, and at the bedside really makes a difference in their care. It not only drives health literacy, but it increases outcomes. It also keeps hospital costs down,” said Robinson. Robinson described how the technology works. “Let's say a patient comes into the hospital and, upon admission, there is a screening for a fall. So, a fall score is done, and the patient has a high fall risk. As soon as that is documented within the EMR, a video about preventing falls in the hospital can automatically be sent to that patient. That patient then gets a prompt on their television set that says: “you've been ordered a video about your health. Would you like to watch it now, or would you like us to remind you later?” The patient can watch it now by pushing 1 on their pillow speaker or remote, whatever is in the room for them to use for their television or they can say, remind me later. If they say, remind me later, it can be customized to remind that patient,” she explained. One of the biggest benefits of the technology used in Journey PX solutions is that they provide care facilities with a better means of exchanging vital information in real-time. “It's closing gaps in communication, and we know that when we close gaps in communication, it improves clinical outcomes. It keeps them safe, and it drives quality within their care,” said Robinson. “You're giving them the information they need and that's how trust is built, and that's what has them coming back to your organization as well,” she continued.

Listen to the full interview on the PX Space podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music.

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Assessing the Situation

The American College of Nursing reported a concerning problem for the healthcare industry, a nursing shortage which began prior to 2017 but was further impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Linda Robinson, the Vice President of Clinical Excellence at MDM Healthcare, has been a nurse for over 34 years and went back to work as an experienced nurse during the pandemic. She states,

“Truly the profession I have worked in for 34 years is forever changed. During the pandemic, healthcare workers were dubbed by the media and the community as superheroes. However, the reality was much harsher. The COVID-19 pandemic left healthcare workers, especially nurses, feeling bruised and battered. I saw it many times when I was working during the pandemic, I heard it, I felt it, and I can tell you many of them did not feel like heroes. They felt like they were coming to work and they were fighting an unwinnable battle and they couldn’t escape it.”

Recent research from a national survey of nurses conducted by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) reveals that during the past few years, “the health of nurse work environments has declined dramatically.” The report indicates that among many key factors, nurses have perceived a decline in communication and collaboration in their work environment and appropriate staffing (the right number of RN staff with the right knowledge and skills) to be major concerns. It states, “The impact of this further decline in the appropriate staffing of nurses is likely to have long-standing effects on nurse well-being and patient safety if not corrected expeditiously.” The study also reveals a dramatic decline in how nurses rated the quality of care in their organizations and work units.

The Experience Complexity Gap

Robinson states that the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated an already difficult problem. “Nurses started leaving the workforce in very large numbers. We had experienced nurses leaving due to burnout. New nurses were entering the workforce, and they were unprepared for the intensity of the pandemic. The mentors were not available, and new nurses didn’t have the advantage of the new hire training and preceptorship that they normally would have received. Many times, these new nurses were put right on COVID floors to take care of COVID patients, and they were just simply unprepared for that. Because of all this, we saw a worsening in the experience complexity gap, which is really the heart of the nursing shortage.”

Robinson referenced solutions outlined in the framework to optimize healthcare performance, which was developed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) in 2007 and recently revised. Robinson explains what used to be the triple aim to improve healthcare system performance, a framework built around reducing costs, improving population health, and patient experience, has now evolved to the quadruple aim, to include healthcare team well-being into the framework.

Bold Changes

The new healthcare landscape with all of its challenges is transforming rapidly in healthcare,” said Robinson. She referenced a study recently published by McKinsey & Company on retaining the healthcare workforce. It states, “Organizations may consider how to leverage digital tools and adapt care models. Although the experiences of 2020-2021 have impacted every profession, few have been more impacted than the nursing workforce. The trauma and moral distress of the past years have exacerbated work force vulnerabilities, but also provide a unique opportunity to accelerate changes (for example, technology-enabled care models) and make bold investments in what the future of nursing could look like.”

Robinson suggests the future of nursing rests on transforming care delivery models and leaning down clinical workflows for healthcare teams, which can be accomplished today using new technology.

“Largely nurses were underappreciated, and I think it’s come to the forefront from the pandemic. We really must take care of our nurses and ask ourselves: how are we helping them with work-life balance? Also, how are we helping them with workflow optimization? That’s something that we work very diligently on at [MDM Healthcare’s cloud-based patient experience platform] Journey PX because we really want to be that partner that helps lean down nursing, clinician, and provider workflows. Our goal is to help them do what they do better and give them the ability to have a presence in the room, even if they’re not actually in the room.”

The McKinsey study suggests these changes would be embraced by nurses and patients alike. It states, “As hospital systems contemplate new ways to embed virtual elements into nursing workflows to improve safety, quality, and efficiency, they are likely to find an enthusiastic workforce. Roughly two-thirds of frontline nurses are interested in providing virtual care in the future.”

The study also suggests that the impact of technology has the capacity to help change care delivery models will result in reducing the need for nurses. It states,

“for every 1 percent expansion of capacity, created through changes in care delivery models, technology-enabled productivity tools, or alternative sites of care settings for patients, the number of nurses needed would decrease by about 25,000.

As the healthcare industry recognizes the need for change and embraces technology solutions, there is some renewed hope that hospital care teams can recover from the challenges they have faced in recent years.

“Nursing truly is a calling. They’re at our sides at birth throughout our lives, during illness, hardship, and even death. We really have to hold onto our nurses and take care of them,” says Robinson.

Listen to the full interview on the PX Space podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music.

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