TELEMEDICINE: CLINICAL CARE TRANSFORMATION
Description
This initiative was launched in the context of national data indicating that enhanced patient monitoring and communication could reduce mortality in hospital ICU’s by as much as 30%, translating to over 60,000 lives saved per year.
Methodology
Over a 6 month period, SPRING worked with a major Midwestern health system to assess and build the business case, design the associated clinical processes and plan implementation of the new eICU technology, which involved a phased system-wide launch. Several stakeholder design sessions were held to perform the necessary work: mapping current workflows, understanding transition requirements of the eICU relative to an ongoing enterprise IT build, conducting and applying learning from ethnographic studies of patients and staff, identifying roles and responsibilities of onsite and remote medical staff and their coordination plans, overcoming initial concerns of ICU nursing staff about "Big Brother", and planning the beta tests.
Results
The eICU roll-out was a significant success. Specialist and nurse productivity increased. This enterprise eICU capability was embraced by onsite staff and deemed essential as a powerful collaborative problem solving tool for clinical care. Patient satisfaction improved. The system's capability for extending telemedicine to remote rural settings was enhanced. This particular implementation was heralded as a model example nationally. Most importantly, patient mortality, medical errors and accidents were reduced.
