06-24-2020, 12:21 AM
TransformativeMed Partners with Billings Clinic to Improve Care Team Communication
Brings Together Electronic Medical Records and Streamlined App Technology
for Better Collaboration
for Better Collaboration
The partnership with TransformativeMed includes implementing all applications within the Core Work Manager suite—including Core Work Manager Mobile, Core Messaging and Core Notify—as well as the Core COVID-19 App, all of which empower seamless communication across care teams. This technology makes it easier to understand who is assigned to different roles for each patient including primary physician, consulting physicians, care managers and nurses.
Billings Clinic is Montana’s largest healthcare organization and serves a vast region covering much of the state, northern Wyoming and the western Dakotas. Billings Clinic is a physician-led, integrated multi-specialty group practice with a 304-bed hospital and a Level II trauma center and approximately 4,500 staff including more than 450 physicians and advanced practitioners offering more than 50 specialties.
Building on their reputation for designing to the needs of different provider specialties, TransformativeMed will also be designing and implementing a Nursing Handoff app configured to further improve communication between nurses and collaboration between shifts. In addition, both companies will be working to enhance the concept of “unified communication” and establishing the EHR as a single source of truth for the composition of the entire care team. The needs for these additional functionalities have been magnified during the COVID-19 pandemic since caring for affected patients relies heavily on efficient handoffs as well as knowing who is on the care team and who is on call at every moment.
“We want all of our providers to have better visibility into workflows, handoffs and secure communication channels,” said Randy Thompson, MD, chief health analytics officer and physician data scientist at Billings Clinic. “TransformativeMed makes assignments and responsibilities easier for our nurses and physicians while offering a clear and comprehensive visualization of all the care those patients have received and need to receive each shift. Not only will this new seamless workflow protect our patients, but we anticipate it will improve our physicians’ and nurses’ experience as well.”
High Reliability Organizing
High reliability organizing (HRO) is a safety and quality concept that originated in academic research of air travel and nuclear energy industries, but has since been applied to numerous other industries, including healthcare. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality defines HROs as entities that “operate in complex, high-hazard domains for extended periods without serious accidents or catastrophic failures,” and who operate in “a condition of persistent mindfulness” that prioritizes safety over other performance pressures.
For Billings Clinic, part of HRO is having a single source of truth for clinician communication, a standardized approach to safe and reliable handoffs, and support of multidisciplinary quality and safety rounding, with an emphasis on nursing workflows.
The Core Work Manager application suite will help Billings Clinic achieve those priorities by streamlining workflows and ensuring continuity of care between shifts. That is because Core Work Manager is an app that is natively embedded within the EHR and accessible on a desktop or mobile device. Rich, actionable EHR information is visually presented in a format unique to each specialty’s priorities. Clinical teams caring for a patient have what they need, when they need it, to organize rounds, convey discharge readiness, conduct handoffs and manage their patient list. As status and situations change, smart notifications and secure messaging ensure the right information is provided so care teams can act.
“Like all leading organizations, Billings Clinic recognizes that without patient safety there can be no quality care,” said Doug Cusick, CEO of TransformativeMed. “That is why we are proud to partner with such a patient-centered organization that has set the admirable goal of HRO. Billings Clinic has fully aligned its values and strategy, and by partnering with TransformativeMed, it is putting the right pieces in place to execute that strategy. This is mission critical and an integrated part of their business model.”
Billings Clinic is expected to go live on the Core Work Manager suite by July 13.
About TransformativeMed
TransformativeMed dramatically improves the usability of Electronic Health Records (EHRs), with specialty-specific and disease-specific workflows, which are embedded within the EHR. The Core Work Manager and Core Diabetes App securely synchronize clinical workflow, tasks, alerts, notifications and messages to harmonize the care team and create seamless communication across clinicians, using any device, including mobile. With TransformativeMed, clinicians are happier and clinical work is streamlined, more efficient, less costly and safer. Learn more at TransformativeMed.com.