Last year, we brought you a number of stories about new services and facilities. We revisited some of those articles and asked the leaders of these services to provide updates.
TeleHealth
Baptist’s TeleHealth initiative took a big step forward in 2015. In March, the Baptist Patient Placement Center opened and began tracking the status of and managing patient placement in the Baptist Memorial Health Care system. Two months later, Leader announced the formation of Baptist’s TeleHealth leadership team. To find out what has been going on since May, Leader talked to members of that leadership team: Katie Morrissette, administrator of Baptist TeleHealth; Deborah Hall, director of the Baptist Patient Placement Center; and Georganne Gairhan, director of eICU and TeleHealth.
[toggle title=”Leader: Now that the Patient Placement Center is tracking all hospital beds in the system, how would you characterize its success?” state=”close”] Deborah Hall: Centralized patient placement is definitely a journey; each day we learn and grow and strive to achieve excellence in our processes to obtain outstanding outcomes. The Baptist Patient Placement Center team facilitates an average of 1,500 transfers a month, and 40 percent of these are direct hospital admissions. The center receives an average of 2,600 phone calls a month and consistently moves patients to available beds within 15 minutes when capacity allows.Even more encouraging than the BPPC’s early statistics is the effect it is having on hospitals. Baptist Memphis’ emergency department has seen a decrease in length of stay for ICU patients waiting for a bed; an increase in volume; and a 50 percent reduction in “hold hours,” or the amount of time patients are in the ED because of a lack of bed availability. With the recent tornadic weather, the BPPC was also able to quickly assess the availability of hospital beds across the system as well as communicate with non-Baptist ICUs. This provided a centralized hub for communication with receiving hospitals and house supervisors at those Baptist facilities, as patients were treated and/or transferred from referring hospitals.
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[toggle title=”Leader: When and how will eICU be rolled out in the system?” state=”close”]
Georganne Gairhan: We will be rolling out the eICU in three phases. The first phase will include Baptist Memphis, Baptist Women’s Hospital and Baptist Collierville. Phase I will have the capacity to monitor up to 100 patients. Phase II will include 104 beds at our remaining hospitals with the exception of Baptist North Mississippi, which will go live when the new hospital opens.[/toggle]
[toggle title=”Leader: What are the plans for expanding eICU beyond our hospitals?” state=”close”]
Georganne: Once we activate eICU in all of our hospitals, the plan is to consider expanding the eICU outside our system to potential health care partners to increase their capability to provide care for critical care patients without having to transfer the patients outside of their community.[/toggle]
[toggle title=”Leader: Because eICU involves monitoring patients remotely, some have expressed concerns about privacy. How would you respond to them?” state=”close”]
Georganne: The eICU program will provide a second layer of monitoring for patients in intensive care units at our facilities. We will not record any audio or video through the program. Instead, the cameras will be used to communicate with the health care team, patients and families at the bedside. The eICU team will utilize the A/V equipment for three reasons:
- When someone in the room pushes the eLert button requesting assistance
- During brief rounding on the patients
- If the eICU becomes aware of a potentially urgent situation
Before the eICU team remotes into a room, a doorbell sound will chime in the room to indicate a connection is being made. When the eICU team is connected, the video camera will be turned toward the patient’s bed, and one of the eICU staff members will be seen on the screen.[/toggle] [toggle title=”Leader: Are there any updates on the eVisits and eConsults initiatives?” state=”close”] Katie Morrissette: Currently, we have eConsults live at Baptist North Mississippi and Baptist Huntingdon. Telepsych consults are being provided at Baptist Huntingdon, and infectious disease consults were successfully implemented at Baptist North Mississippi in 2015. eConsults will be expanded for infectious disease and neurology at facilities that have identified a need for these services. Each facility will have a telemedicine cart available for use in early 2016.[/toggle]
Spence and Becky Wilson Baptist Children’s Hospital at the Baptist Women’s Hospital
The Spence and Becky Wilson Baptist Children’s Hospital opened on Jan. 28, 2015 with the expectation of treating 18 children a day. The hospital’s pediatric emergency department quickly shattered that goal, and the average number of patients seen steadily increased throughout 2015. During the first seven months of the year, the pediatric ED treated 40 patients a day; in September and October, that number rose to 52 a day, and in November, 55 patients a day were treated in the pediatric ED. In all, the hospital treated more than 14,000 children last year.
The hospital will continue to grow in 2016. Physicians representing a number of specialties ‒ including orthopedics; neurology and neurosurgery; ear, nose and throat; plastic surgery; general surgery; cardiology; infectious disease; and gynecology ‒ already practice in the ED, but hospital leadership plans to recruit even more. The facility itself will expand, as well, with the construction of a new pediatric ICU.
“For children requiring general care, surgery or admission, we are able to provide great care close to home and return the child to their normal routine,” said Yvette DeVaughn, nurse manager of pediatrics for the Spence and Becky Wilson Baptist Children’s Hospital. “We are providing a great benefit to the children of our community in that they receive care quickly when minutes matter before being moved to the level of care required.”
Baptist North Mississippi construction update
In 2015, the foundation was poured and the new Baptist North Mississippi hospital rose from the ground. But what has happened since our last update in November, what will happen in 2016 and – most importantly – when will the new hospital open?
Currently, construction crews are working on the second, third and fourth floors; building the central energy plant, loading dock and ambulance building; and designing patient rooms. Work on the interior of the building should start this spring, when the facility should have permanent power and the concrete structure should be complete. The new hospital is expected to open in the summer of 2017.
Baptist OneCare Update: ‘Getting Better’ with and for you!
In the spirit of continuous improvement, the Baptist OneCare team continues working with all providers and staff to get better every day. In addition to response to the many requests at http://epic/staff/SitePages/Home.aspx, the BOC team is using the Baptist Management System tools.
Teams are using the A3 tool to document the problem solving process. The A3 owner also coordinates Gemba walks in hospitals and clinics to observe and talk with end users to determine more efficient and effective ways to use the BOC tools to improve clinical and financial outcomes.
Other optimization efforts are the completion of requests from the more than 100 post-live visits since the multiple go-lives. On-site visits to departments and entities continue to strengthen the collaboration between end users, subject-matter experts and the BOC teams. Tighter alignment with service line leaders, system discipline leaders, IT experts, nursing and pharmacy informaticists along with BMG and hospital site support provide visible evidence of commitment and teamwork to deliver great results toward system standardization.
By February, the remaining upgrade enhancements from the August 8 Version 2014 upgrade will be installed. Early discussions are in progress to determine the best time to upgrade to Version 2015, which promises to add even greater functionality for staff, providers and patients.
The special updates that add enhancements are now being installed every 12 weeks instead of every eight weeks. This limits the amount of planned downtime and disruption to our end users.
Thanks to everyone who continues to call the Help Desk (77777) to report issues. These calls are prioritized for resolution and trended for root causes to avoid future calls for the same issue. Please continue to call ALL issues to these dedicated team members who are waiting to help you. They receive an average of 650 calls and emails every day.
2016 promises to be an exciting year for Baptist and the BOC products. More than 150,000 patients have active MyChart accounts. We hope you do! Our MyChart users can increase the engagement in their care with the following changes:
- Electronic and video visits with their providers
- E-Check in for their appointments
- Receive text alerts when appointment slots become available
- Report their health data to their provider through integration with FitBit and other personal health monitoring devices
In the hospitals clinical case management will go live this summer. Centralized scheduling for outpatient procedures will increase access and efficiency for our patients. Patient photo will be introduced at all sites in 2016 to support our commitment to safety and privacy/security. Added focus on turnaround times and patient experience will be supported by new BOC reports and dashboards. The BOC tools are at the heart of the new care coordination effort in partnership with Select Health Alliance and Dr. Henry Sullivant.
“Get Better at Baptist” is more than words. It is our daily promise to those we serve.
Baptist University’s Biomedical Sciences major
Last February, we profiled Kanesia Shaw, the first student to graduate from the Baptist Health Sciences University’ newest major, Biomedical Sciences. To find out how the program has grown since then, we caught up with Kendricks Hooker, Ph.D., MBA, chair of the Biomedical Sciences program and associate professor of Biology at Baptist University, and here’s what he told us.
Currently, we have 48 students. Our largest graduating class to date will be this spring – seven students. One of the seven, Brandon Smith, has been accepted into the Pharmacy program at the University of Tennessee. The other six have applied, and we are patiently waiting.