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

Nightingale’s Innovative Nurse: (November): Amelia Roberts, RN

August 20, 2018    |   , , ,

 

Meet Amelia Roberts, RN

Amelia Roberts

What do you love about being a nurse?

What I love about being a nurse is the perspective I get! From where I stand, I see life with all that it offers, both problems and solutions. In my nursing role, we deliver patient care in a variety of forms. This viewpoint shows me both challenges and opportunities that patients face in navigating the healthcare system. In my role as caregiver, I have a clear view of solutions that support how care is delivered. Nursing gives such a unique perspective of what works on the user interface side. This viewpoint also shows clearly, what does not work in terms of user experience. Being an end user of a variety of healthcare technologies, I see many well-meaning companies who hope to facilitate communication among providers and disconnected healthcare systems. As a nurse, I feel it is a duty to contribute to solving these and other challenges that impact patient care.

How does contributing to solve these challenges look?

A few years ago there was a Hackathon at a local healthcare facility. I submitted an idea on an app that would facilitate discharge planning. As a finalist, I had the opportunity to see my app go from idea on paper to an experience that I could actually engage with on an iPad! Not much happened from there. Due to various system-level challenges, the app could not be put into practice. Since then I’ve been actively engaged in conversations with a variety of tech companies who offer similar discharge planning solutions. In my role as a provider of solutions, I find joy and connecting such founders with Healthcare Champions and health care decision-makers. My aim in facilitating these conversations is to break down some of the silos that prevent cross-pollination of ideas.

What do you love most about being a nurse?

Thinking of the unique perspective of the registered nurse, I would love for more technology companies to seek out having nurses as part of their team, if not only as a focus group. It would make sense to have these nurse stakeholders part of the conversation during the front end development of Technology as well. Many times nurses are included on the back end in terms of creating workflows for implementation. Many challenges are discovered during implementation that could have been avoided if nurse input was sought earlier in the process.

Related to solving this challenge,  I’ve enjoyed participating in a variety of electronic medical record user-testing opportunities. What I love about nursing is the opportunity that it gives me in connecting the problems I see with solutions that are out there ready to be used. If you would like to continue the conversation, please shoot me an emailamelia@solutionsbyamelia.com.

 

Business Website www.solutionsbyamelia.com

Personal Blog: The Story Behind My Business

Twitter and Instagram @RN_Solutions

Nightingale’s November Newsletter

August 20, 2018    |   , ,

Did you catch our November Newsletter?

Here’s an excerpt:

While I get to share my story, I also get to offer a perspective that perhaps is new. Yet, I hope that perspective lights that initial spark that can be taken back to the workplace and think differently about how to solve some of the challenges faced in our health care environment. 

You can read the full newsletter here: Nightingale’s November Newsletter . To be added to our mailing list, email us at contact@nightingaleapps.com or sign up on the website!

 

The power of perseverance.

August 19, 2018    |   , ,

Perseverance is an essential characteristic when embarking on something new.

I was a PhD student for 4 years. Some students took 5 years to complete the degree. Yet, I knew I wouldn’t be able to sustain a fifth year. I needed to finish in 4 years. I spent the first two years of the program trying to demonstrate that there was value in studying nursing documentation. More specifically, I studied the information needs of nurses before and after an electronic nursing documentation system implementation. I remember being in a class one day and the professor looked at me and said, “no one cares about nursing documentation”. Ouch!

My first paper wasn’t accepted until I was in my 3rd year of the program. Yet, it was accepted with very little changes required to the Journal of Nursing Scholarship. That paper was what caught the attention of a publisher that led to them asking me to write my book, Electronic Health Records for Quality Nursing and Health Care. (So, it turns out MANY people care about nursing documentation… 😉 ). I applied for many external grants before finally figuring out the best way to present the case. I worked tirelessly every day. After that, I had several grants funded with a total of 7 by the end of my PhD program.

I remember thinking (often) ‘would it really happen, would I finally get this PhD degree?’ I also remember thinking it had to be preparing me for something else that would come. I couldn’t think of any other reason why it was so painful and difficult for that long of a time frame. That something else was entrepreneurship. Starting a business from an idea (e.g., Nightingale Apps) requires extensive perseverance (and many other characteristics). Instead of being in one academic setting, your ecosystem is much larger with greater variability in perspective. There aren’t set protocols and when you have something brand new, (e.g., Know My Patient), there isn’t a path already paved for you to follow. You need to be the one to figure it out. You also need to decide who and what to listen to as you go down this path. Everyone will have an opinion but you’ll need to decide which one(s) are aligned with your vision.

“The truth is, there is only so far ‘motivation’ can carry you and your vision when you are in the grind (especially in the early days). People watch you from afar, some half-expecting you to fail, and after all the good wishes and pep talks, you are only left with yourself — and your willingness to keep going.”

3 Secrets to Persevering (When All You Want to Do Is Give Up)

Post originally appeared on Dr. Tiffany Kelley RN on December 4th, 2017

Nurses aim to break innovation barriers

August 19, 2018    |   , ,

Thank you again MedTech Boston for the opportunity to share more insights on entrepreneurship in nursing.

“Nurses solve problems every day by the bedside, Kelley said, and the same problem might persist every day, only the nurses and the patients might be different.”

Nurses Aim to Break Innovation Barriers

Post originally appeared on Dr. Tiffany Kelley RN on November 16th, 2017