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VITAS Healthcare and Centric Consulting Partner

to Strengthen Innovative Patient Care Offerings

Centric Consulting’s Miami office (#CentricMIA) improvement for our patient care experience,” said
is proud to announce its partnership with VITAS Patrick Hale, Chief Information Officer of VITAS
Healthcare, the nation’s leading provider of end-of- Healthcare. “This mobile solution transfers data in real-
life care, to advance the delivery of patient care fur- time and operates intuitively, so our caregivers minimize
ther, using Apple devices such as iPhones and iPads. the time spent on data entry and maximize the time
VITAS turned to Centric, a business consulting spent with patients and their families.”
and technology solutions firm, to support the devel- By applying an agile project methodology, the cross-
opment and implementation of their mobile technol- functional team delivered improvements to the app
ogy, and enhance VITAS’ patient intake services, cli- every two weeks. The focus of the collaborative
nician workflows, and computerized pharmacy approach was to deliver high priority features with fre-
order entry (CPOE). quent user feedback and rapid quality assurance testing.
“Bringing technology to the hands of clinicians The approach resulted in the design of new product fea-
and physicians to enable the process of care reduces tures that digitize clinical assessment and care coordina-
the time burden on practitioners and provides real- tion forms by using electronic signature functionality for
time data to improve quality and patient safety,” said home medical equipment and pharmacy medications.
Karla Schnell, Centric Miami Healthcare Lead. “By bringing clinicians, technologists and process
A cross-functional team of VITAS clinicians and experts together, we were able to ensure adoption of the
Centric’s mobile technology, clinicians and opera- Karla Schnell app, which solves some important problems, while lim-
tional process improvement experts, worked togeth- iting the impact on already overburdened clinicians and
er to design and build an iPad tablet application that allows admissions physicians,” Schnell said. “With the continuous demands on the health-
nurses to seamlessly transition to a faster, streamlined patient intake care system, we need to use every opportunity to drive out redundancy
process. and inefficiency while positioning caregivers for the safest practice pos-
“As a leader in healthcare innovation, VITAS is focused on continuous sible.”

Cover Story: Good Samaritan Medical Center Appoints

Tara McCoy as New Chief Executive Officer

Continued from page 1 career, she began to work her way up ogy program. McCoy says that the Good Looking ahead, McCoy knows there
from that starting point, and continued Samaritan Medical Center Breast In - will be some challenges facing the med-
“It was very rewarding to develop the
network from scratch and see it evolve working with different teams to drive stitute, in particular, is designated by the ical center and the community it serves.
from the recruitment of our physician results. American College of Surgeons as a One of the biggest challenges is the rapid
leaders to determining which programs She’s always enjoyed working with National Accreditation Program for growth of the community. As the popula-
the community needed; what we would physicians hand-in-hand to improve the Breast Centers (NAPBC), a designation tion continues to rise, she says it’s their
invest in; where they should be; and the way care is delivered through the differ- reserved for breast centers that achieve responsibility to ensure they can keep up
coordination of the physicians and the ent roles she had. In fact, she says that it high standards across the most effective with that demand.
hospitals across three counties,” McCoy helped to set her up for her current role. breast cancer treatments. The Breast “We continually try to see what we
says. “It was complex and innovative, “My main job now is leading a fantas- Institute is also a Breast Imaging Center need to bring to the community to deliv-
and I feel like we built something very tic team and looking at ways to deliver the of Excellence by the American College of er the best possible care to those who
special and different.” best care that we can for our patients,” she Radiology. need it,” she says. “So we want to make
McCoy had always wanted to get into says. “We have oncologic services that could sure we're able to educate the community
the healthcare field. She received her During her time at the Heart and rival top national programs and that are about the physicians who are here and
Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Vascular Network, McCoy orchestrated all incredibly comprehensive, including our the programs that we have in place to
Tulane University and her Master of new program development, covering the high risk genetics clinic,” says McCoy. keep the patients and the community
Science in Industrial Engineering from identification and implantation of The third area that makes Good healthy and fit.”
the University of South Florida. advanced procedures, business case devel- Samaritan unique is that Good Samaritan It’s also important to keep up with the
At the beginning, she was sure she opment, marketing strategy and ongoing is part of a larger system, Tenet latest advances in technology and inno-
wanted to be a physician and as a result, oversight to ensure goals were being met. Healthcare. vations, she notes.
she began volunteering at a hospital. But She also implemented essential programs “Being part of a larger network always “We’re constantly looking at innova-
she soon realized that her passion wasn’t including Structural Heart (TAVR, provides opportunities in terms of coor- tions and what we need to do to bring
necessarily focused on the clinical side. MitraClip, and Watchman), Advanced dination with other sister hospitals,” says them here to make sure we’re meeting
Rather, she was interested in how care Heart Failure (LVAD), Robotic Vascular, McCoy. the community needs,” she says. “I love
delivery could be improved by focusing and Comprehensive A-Fib. In addition to The most rewarding part of McCoy’s innovation and I love complex program
on processes and efficiency. enhancing the division’s cardiovascular job is the individual impact Good development. You can expect to see more
“I saw high inefficiencies in terms of service line, she also oversaw the develop- Samaritan can make on a person’s life. of both.”
the long waiting times in the emergency ment of the pediatric surgery line. “One of the things that really energizes She adds that Good Samaritan is a
department, the bad communication There are three things that make Good me on a daily basis is visiting individual place where the physicians, nurses, and
challenges and the breakdown between Samaritan unique, according to McCoy. patients in their rooms and hearing their administrators all come together in a
departments,” she says. “Instead of going The first is the people at Good Samaritan stories,” she says. “I often hear stories united way to do the best they can for its
to medical school, I decided to go a dif- who distinguish it from other medical about the impact our physicians, patients.
ferent route from being a doctor and I got systems. employees and nurses made for them. It “I believe that true magic happens in
my Master’s degree in industrial engi- “This hospital truly is a culture that really brings it all home to why we do healthcare when we break down the silos
neering.” feels like a family,” she says. “The what we do. Also, seeing something and we are all headed in the same direc-
McCoy began to focus on healthcare in employees and the medical staff are we’ve invested in - such as a technology tion,” she says. “That’s what we are all
terms of process improvement and oper- incredibly dedicated to the hospital and program, or an employee who meets the about.”
ations improvement and studied ways they take a tremendous pride in what needs of a particular program - and see-
the healthcare system can improve the they do on a daily basis. ing a life be changed by that is incredibly For more information,
efficiency of healthcare. Throughout her The second unique thing is the oncol- rewarding.” visit www.goodsamaritanmc.com.

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10 December 2017 southfloridahospitalnews.com South Florida Hospital News