Patient-Centeredness & the Persistent Fax Machine

September 06, 2023    |   , , ,

Patient-centered care is one of the six factors of quality in healthcare. Yet, there are many opportunities for improved patient-centered care.

To anyone that has had to fill out a form or receive a form from a healthcare provider or practice, there is a great likelihood of being told to ‘fax it back’.

Yet, how many have access to a fax machine at home?

Next, you are working to find a way to get the information back to or from the healthcare facility or organization that is not through a fax machine.

Knowing most do not have a fax machine, and encountering this issue, this is one example of an opportunity to improve patient-centered care.

In the bigger picture, healthcare has opportunities to explore the healthcare experience through the eyes of patients and unveil the blind spots to truly address patient-centeredness.

This is just one example but there are many others.

The article here provides several factors that contribute to the persistent challenge however, at some point, we will not be using fax machines….

In the meantime, one area of impact is on quality through that patient experience.

 

~ Dr. Kelley

“You are taking my vitals on a post-it note!?”

November 30, 2015    |   , , , , , , ,

“You are taking my vitals on a post-it note!?”

I said these words a few weeks ago during a doctor’s visit. When it was my turn to be seen, I was brought back to a very small room and the nurse said, “I need to take your vitals”. She sat me down and started with my blood pressure. I turned my head to my left to look at what she was doing and that was when I saw it:

the yellow post-it note.

yellow-post-it-note

I reacted with: “Oh my, you are taking my vitals on a post-it note!?” The nurse responded, “ Well yes, I have to put them (e.g., my vital signs) in the computer.”

 

My mind started to race… ‘My vital patient information that can potentially be used over time, to assess my physical health status while under the care of this practice, is being written down on a post-it note.‘

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Nurses need to be cared for too.

November 01, 2015    |   , , , , , ,

I envision a day in the near future where we can support nurses with tools that allow them to spend more time with their patients and less time searching for information needed to provide safe, efficient care.

Nurses struggle to efficiently answer basic questions about their patients, often not just for themselves but also for the patient’s families and the larger health care team.

What basic questions you might ask? Below is a list of a small subset of the many questions nurses get asked each day while providing patient care:

  • Have my (the patient’s) labs/exams/test results come back yet?
  • When is the patient due for meds?
  • Does the patient have any allergies?
  • When can I (the patient) go home?

In each of the above questions, nurses need to provide an answer. How do they find that answer? Well, maybe they know from their memory, but if not, nurses have this trusted tool in their pocket: a piece of paper. 

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It is all about the process.

May 06, 2015    |   , , , , ,

I am a nurse, an informaticist, and at times, I am also a patient. Last summer, I made an appointment for a vision exam. I was getting into my car to drive to the office when I noticed I had a voice mail. The voice mail was from the office letting someone else know that her glasses were in and she could come pick them up. I thought, ‘well that is strange, I’ll have to let them know when I get there that they called the wrong number’. What I should have done was call right back. Had I called back, I would have found out that my appointment needed to be rescheduled due to a malfunction with the equipment that day. (Instead, I drove to the office and found out in person). Although, had I called when I got the voicemail, I wouldn’t have identified the informatics challenge I saw upon arrival to the office. Read more

The Opportunity to Use Technology to Effectively Engage Family & Friends

May 06, 2015    |   , , , , ,

Promoting patient-provider relationships and patient engagement in one’s own health care delivery are two topics that often come up for current discussion. I believe both are necessary for quality patient health outcomes. However, establishing a patient-provider relationship and engaging the patient are both areas that require continuous efforts from the providers and the patients. We as health care professionals are responsible for educating patients and their families about the patient’s health condition. Yet, the patient (and family) is also responsible for ensuring an understanding of his or her health condition, as well as asking questions to clarify the disseminated information. Read more

“Where’s my sheet?!”
Introducing Know My Patient™

May 06, 2015    |   , , , , , , , ,

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“Where’s my sheet?!”

Nurses, you know the sheet I’m referring to…you also know the feeling of panic that rushes over you when you can’t find it. “Where did I leave it? I need that to know my patients!” This sheet is a piece of paper that is the nurses’ daily lifeline to knowing their patients.

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