The providence health system has an internal service available to its 51 hospitals and other rural and community hospitals in its eight-state service area, Bringing Specing Specialists and Other High-Demand Providers virtually to the hospital bedside.
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This Acute Care Telemedicine Service – Built by and For Providence – Seamlessly Integrates with Clinical Workflows and Processes to Provide Quality Care to Any Hospitalized In the Provident In the Provident Hospital Ecosystem.
The challenge
Anyone Caring for Critically Ill Patients KnowS That Access to Specialists and High-Demand Providers within Hospitals is Essential to Achieving Good Ooutcomes and Supporting Patients. Scheduled and on-Demand Access to Neurologists, Infectious Disease Specialists, Hospitalists, Intensivists and Psychiatrists is Proven to address these goals. However, the workforce crisis is making the job of staffing to need a tough battle.
The problem is three pronged – Revolving Around Provider Supply, Demand and Distribution of Clinical Expertise, Said Sherene Schlegel, RN, COO and CNO, Virtual Care and Digital Hest, Digital Hest, AT.
“First, on the supply side, we have significant shortfalls in the number of physicians who can treat specific conditions due to a broad set of factor – but the aging population of our pass Burnout are playing a significant role, “She explained.
“Nationally, 41% of icu physicians have reported a high level of Burnout, 55% of Physicians will be age 75 or older by 2036, and more than half of in incency Unfilled, “She Continued.
“So, this problem is real. On the demand side, aging patient population and new treatment options are increasing the demand for specialists. In fact, most hospital stays requires at least one specialty constructing.”
In such a supply-sand-demand constrained environment, the distribution of physicians-where they are geographically in the world-starts to make a trendous difference. In the acute care environment, a strong telemedicine program can get excellent specialists and high-demand providerrs to the bedseide of any hospitalized paternt in a service area, shhe added.
That’s why the health system has been developing the providence virtual acute care program over the last 10 or so years.
Proposal
“Here at providence, we have been at the forefront of delivering virtual action care services since the persian – so we’ve bee ben developing and learning what makes An Effective Program.
“For Us, our high-quality, mission-based care is non-negotiable-so we wanted to develop a program that focused on enabling our own providence provides provides to be available Within the hospital, “She Continued. “Having our virtual team be provides provides – who met the high quality, crediting and governance requires requirements used across our system and who know our internal Systems, Protocols and Workflows – was essential. “
The virtual provides are colleagues of that at the hospital site, and staff believe that makes a trendous differentce.
“Over the Years, we’ve also learned a lot about the delicate balance that exists between operateal scalability and hospital-specific requirements,” Schlegel noted. “To make the program operateally feasible, we needed to take advantage of the economies of scale that a health system like providence has
“With 51 Hospitals and Hundreds of Referral Hospitals Within Our Service Area, Program Scalability is Bost Possible and Essential,” She Continued. “But we also are keenly aware each hospital brings
Utilization, Staffing and Recruiting Preferences and Constraints, The Nuans of the Community Served, and the services available to care for them – all have an impact on how care decisions are. Providence needed to assure it was altar to consider the hospital-specific requirements as well.
“For these reasons, National Telemedicine Services Really Fall Short-So For Us, Developing A Providence-Specific Virtual Acute Telemedicine Program Was Essential,” Schlegel stated.
Meeting the challenge
Over the Years, The Providence Virtual Acute Care Service has Evolved Into a Highly Valuable, Comprehensive and Scalable Program that is Meeting the needs of the needs of the health system ‘ Referral Networks.
There are six core components to the program.
First, providence provides. The service starts with provides.
“We don’t just integrate with providence, we are provides,” Schlegel explained. “Our service was born by and for our hospitals and referral hospitals, and our provides are providence employees who met or exced our standards for Employment and Service Levels.
“We are full-service teams focused on delivering mission-based care and helping our collargues delivery on their patient care goals,” She added. “We use the same systems they use and are focused on providing our unique providence brand of mission-based care.”
Next, Clinical Quality Programs and Analytics. Staff layer on top of all of this a standards-based quality program that incorporates ongoing monitoring for adharens and reporting against against assalled KPIS-Including Quality of PATINTY OF PATINTY OC
Then, customized clinical design. The Hospital-Specific Clinical Design Process Recognizes The Unique Service Availability, Referral Preferences and Operational Norms of a Hospital and Optimizes Workflowsingly. The system is Deeply Integrated Into Existing Workflow, Processes and Operations, While Adhering to and Supporting Providence Standards of Care, Governance Models and Mession.
Next, one-call-for-ball service. “Our unprecedented ‘One-call-for-ball,’ real-time patient support manages immediative action for any hospital requirement or issue,” Schlegel explained. “Our digital access center ensures clinicians and stakeholders get the crucial assistance they need to perform at their best. This include a 24/7 virtual response team, stakehlder support and service Levels. “
Further, Cross-divides Exam Technology.
“We are equipped with high-defintion cameras and integrated peripheral devices that allow the facilitation of comprehensive, remote examines,” Schlegel noted. “Our Exam Hardware and Software Are Are Standardized Across Providence to Deliver a price, support and experience advantage.
“We use highly reliable bidirectional audio/video technology, include carts, wall-mounted units and tablets, as well as exams sools tools soLuetoothoscopes and physiopheral Devices-Delivered at a price advantage through cross-dividence, volume-based contracts, “She Continued.
“Our Clinician Portal Supports Request Triage and Case Assignment, Provides Safety and Quality Controls to ENSURE OPPROPRATE LCENSINS and Credentialing, As Well as Manage Scheduling Providing Instans and Service-Line Standards. “
And finally, the Telemedicine Resource Center. “Last, we provide shared services that support our hospitals as they transition toward a virtual care augmented hospital,” She said. “We provide learning and education options for every level and function, helping the organizations we serve to manage the differences and completes of teleheld operations.”
Results
Virtual care at providence is provided to be an important component of the health system’s care delivery. Today, The Health System Has more than 250 virtually enabled Acute Clinicians Delivering Service in more than 100 sites in eighted states, and delivers more than a million encontorers Every Year.
The providence virtual acute care services have evolved from tele-stroke alone to eight offerings including:
The Tele-STROKE Service Line, Live in more than 80 sites, serving more than 16,000 patients every year with an average response time of 2.4 minutes.
The emergent tele-neurology offering, serving more than 1,000 patients every year at 28 sites, providing 24/7 Neurology Coverage to Hard-to-Recruit Service Areas.
The Tele-Neurohospitalist Service Line, Offering 24/7 access to Board-CERTIED Neurologists at Eight Sites, Reduction Transfers and Improving Patint Outoms.
The Tele-iG service line, live at 12 sites, enabling eegs at sites without machines to be conducted and reach within 24 hours and stat requests to be raded within two hours.
The telepsychiatry service line, live at more than 40 sites, with an average response time of less than seven minutes. One in three patients are rapidly tried and sent to lower acuity care.
The Tele-Critical-Care Service Line, which has decreased risk-weDUSTED MORTALITY, Decreased Length of Stay and Reduced Transfer Rates.
The Tele-Hospitalist Service Line, which has demonstrated Reduced Ed Wait Times of More Than 6-Times at Partner Hospitals, Contributed to Decreased Lenth of Stay, And Offers Crose of Cross-Cover Resolution Times Times Minutes.
The recently launched tele-infectious-diese service line, offering sweet consults 365 days per year; Early Infectious Disease Consultation Can Reduce Length of Stay by up to 29% and Reduce 30-Day ReadMizations by 8%.
Advice for other
“I would emphasize the critical role virtual care plays in mitigating clinician shortages and allowing patients to have access to care recordless of their geography. “Virtual care not only alleviates staffing constraints but also enhances patients by providing timely access to experience to expert care – and is if you mean Ones close to home.
“I don’t believe flexibility is a trend – I think it’s the new currency of hospital employees,” She Continued. “When done right it’s good for patients, good for hospitals, good for administors and good for our clinicians. That said, embracing flexibility shout not means a Compromise to Care Quelity. Important to Figure out a Way to Both Have Scalability and Deliver Quality Care.
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