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Phoenix Children’s Hospital Uses Vocera Solution to Assist Busy Clinicians - Margaret Kelly - 08-09-2018
Phoenix Children’s Hospital Uses Vocera Solution to Assist Busy Clinicians
Nudges designed by nursing and IT leaders improve patient, family and clinician experience
One of the largest children’s hospitals in the country, Phoenix Children’s boasts a medical staff of nearly 1,000 pediatric specialists across more than 75 pediatric subspecialties. With a growing number of care team members, an expanding footprint, and a focus on delivering patient-centered care, clinical and IT leaders at the hospital understand that communication is key.
“The entire ecosystem of our communication and messaging is fundamentally built on Vocera,” said David Higginson, executive vice president and chief information officer at Phoenix Children’s. “The technology is deeply ingrained into the hospital’s clinical and operational workflows.”
When the Vocera system was implemented at Phoenix Children’s more than 15 years ago, nurses were the main users. Adoption of the hands-free Vocera Badge quickly spread to physicians, who now use the wearable device and the Vocera secure app on smartphones to communicate with each other, nurses and other care team members via text messages or voice calls on their devices of choice.
“I prefer to communicate with nurses through a Vocera text message because I can respond as soon as it is convenient and not be interrupted if I'm with a patient or talking to a family member,” said John Hartley, MD, pediatric hospitalist. “Plus, unlike with a missed phone call or traditional page, secure texting provides patient-centric context, which helps me decide how and when to respond.”
Contextual information makes it easier for clinicians to respond quickly and appropriately to specific situations, which is why the IT team is collaborating with the Magnet Nursing Counsel at Phoenix Children’s to identify, design and implement patient-centric nudge notifications. Triggered by a specific event in the EHR, nudges with context are sent automatically to a patient’s nurse or care team on their device of choice to remind them to close the loop on an important task or documentation.
Nurses are required to document pain scores 45 minutes after administering pain medication. If the score hasn’t been documented in the EHR in that timeframe, a nudge is sent to the nurse, who can respond directly on his or her mobile device with the pain score, which automatically goes back into the EHR. Nudges are also used to remind nurses of home medication or breast milk being stored in hospital refrigerators during a patient’s stay. These nudges include the name of the patient, what is being stored in the refrigerator, and where. Using intelligent alerting and escalation rules, the hospital is ensuring patients and families make it back home with their valuable resources.
Nudges can also save valuable time. Nurses often spend time following up on the status of pharmacy orders. A simple nudge letting them know the order is in process, out for delivery, and delivered saves countless calls and disruption to nurses and pharmacists. Similarly, keeping nurses up-to-date on last-minute changes to surgery schedules can be challenging. An automated, proactive nudge with the latest times can prevent confusion and stress, and ensure patients are properly prepped.
“Nudge notifications are yet another unique and innovative way the hospital is using Vocera technology to improve communication and the healthcare experience for patients, families and care teams alike,” said Brent Lang, president and CEO of Vocera. “We have been a proud partner of Phoenix Children’s for more than a decade and look forward to seeing what the clinical and IT teams do next.”
About Phoenix Children’s Hospital
Phoenix Children’s is Arizona’s only children’s hospital recognized by U.S. News & World Report’s Best Children’s Hospitals. Phoenix Children's provides world-class inpatient, outpatient, trauma, emergency and urgent care to children and families in Arizona and throughout the Southwest. As one of the largest children’s hospitals in the country, Phoenix Children’s provides care across more than 75 pediatric specialties. Phoenix Children’s is poised for continued growth in quality patient care, research and medical education. For more information about the hospital, visit http://www.phoenixchildrens.org.
About Vocera
The mission of Vocera Communications, Inc. is to simplify and improve the lives of healthcare professionals and patients, while enabling hospitals to enhance quality of care and operational efficiency. In 2000, when the company was founded, we began to forever change the way care teams communicate. Today, Vocera continues to offer the leading platform for clinical communication and workflow. More than 1,700 facilities worldwide, including nearly 1,500 hospitals and healthcare facilities, have selected our solutions for team members to text securely using smartphones or make calls with our hands-free, wearable Vocera Badge. Interoperability between Vocera and more than 140 clinical and operational systems helps reduce alarm fatigue, speed up staff response times, and improve patient care, safety and experience. In addition to healthcare, Vocera is at home in luxury hotels, aged care facilities, nuclear facilities, libraries, retail stores and more. Vocera makes a difference in any industry where workers are on the move and need to connect instantly with team members and access resources or information quickly. In 2017, Vocera made the list of Forbes 100 Most Trustworthy Companies in America. Learn more at www.vocera.com, and follow @VoceraComm on Twitter.
Vocera [sup]®[/sup][sup] [/sup]and the Vocera logo are trademarks of Vocera Communications, Inc. registered in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other trademarks appearing in this release are the property of their respective owners.
CONTACT
Shanna Hearon
Vocera Communications, Inc.
669.999.3368
shearon@vocera.com