Page 14 - SFHN March 2018

Cover Story: VITAS and Centric Consulting Create Award-winning

Mobile Solution to Improve Patient Care

Continued from page 1 understand the technology,” he added. to the bedside faster.”
The award recognizes success in projects “Many people already used iOS devices VITAS also saved $2.2 million by
where processes are improved and enabled in their personal lives, so switching switching to the iPhone 6+, because the
by technology, and are judged on initial them to iPads and iPhones was pretty phones cost about 35 percent less than
implementation success, future sustain- easy.” PCs with the appropriate software and
ability, governance and business impact. The tech team set out to create an app security. “In 2014, the cost to arm each
VITAS first began working with Centric, that would collect the information caregiver with the right equipment was
a business consulting and technology needed while not affecting the bedside $71.25; now it’s $43,” said Hale. “We’ve
solutions firm, about five years ago with experience. “Using this technology, the seen a 15 percent reduction on cost per
the goal of putting mobile devices into the clinician doesn’t turn their back on the referral—in 2016, that was a savings of
hands of its field staff to make it easier and patient while collecting information; $908,000. This process is much faster
faster to relay important daily care infor- the iPad or iPhone basically disappears and more effective.”
mation. “Our goal was to reduce time out of the equation,” said Hale. “It’s The amount of training required has
incurred during the patient admissions easy to set it down to hold a hand or to also been reduced—by 20 times. “Pre-
process and increase speed to bedside by provide treatment.” mobile, it required 23 hours of training
VITAS clinicians,” said Hale. The app is extremely user-friendly, before nurses could use the system;
“We reached out for the best talent we featuring a real-time interface so that mobile device training takes one hour,”
could find, and we loved the team that clinicians don’t have to remember to said Hale. “A brand new nurse to VITAS
Centric brought,” he added. “They really store and then later forward informa- gets a phone, which self-configures, and
meshed well with our team, and their tech- tion. A “body picker” enables users to after an hour of watching tutorials, he
nology expertise is unsurpassed.” simply click on an on-screen body part, or she can be off and admitting.”
Chris Martinez, technology practice lead such as the left arm, and enter a pain or After the 18-month pilot program
for Centric Miami, met with VITAS execu- wound score, and the app also has a proved such a success, the technology
tives and clinicians to understand how voice dictation feature. team moved ahead with adding new
their system worked, and to create a “We created an app that is very famil- features and functions. “Every piece of
roadmap that would help the technology iar to our clinicians; when they open it, ments, which required a lot of calls back- technology we layer on builds on how
team convert VITAS’ paper processes into it looks like a chart,” said Hale. “They can and-forth. the system works,” said Hale. “We want to
digital. point, click and swipe, and because the “With the iPhone and iPad apps, we continue to leverage the power of mobile
“At the time, nurses in the field were app translates touch to text, it eliminates were able to drop outbound calls by 40 devices every day to make clinicians’ lives
taking reams of forms with them to admit 60 to 70 keystrokes.” percent over a year-and-a-half period, easier. By eliminating the technology bur-
patients into care, and we decided to trans- The app has created other efficiencies as which has had a profound impact on clin- den, we make it more about patient inter-
fer this information to iPads to help them well. In the past, when a patient or caregiv- ical operations,” said Hale. “In 2014, we action and clinical experience.”
do the same process, only more quickly,” er first called VITAS, that call would be had 918,000 calls; in 2016, that number
he explained. sent to one of three nationwide centralized was 554,000. We also saw a 21 percent To learn more, visit VITAS at
“The initial challenge was to make sure call centers. The center would call the decrease in inbound calls. The result is www.Vitas.com or Centric at
that we had the right subject matters in local program and share information on that our nurses and clinicians are getting www.CentricConsulting.com.
place, and that the 5,000 end-users could the patient’s medical history and require-

14 March 2018 southfloridahospitalnews.com South Florida Hospital News