The Fort Carson MEDDAC, Information Management and Information Technology professionals were named the FY13 AMEDD IM IT Professionals and Team of the Year. This was a multi-service collaborative effort to provide state-of-the-art hands free communications for the MEDDAC clinical staff.
The primary communication device, the Vocera Badge is a lightweight, wearable voice-controlled device that enables instant two-way or one to many conversations using intuitive and simple commands. It is widely used by mobile workers who want the convenience and expedience of being able to communicate hands-free.
After a successful pilot in the Evans Army Community Hospital Emergency Department of Vocera, the team continued to refine and expand the concept and design. The cross-functional, cross-organizational team worked diligently to integrate new technologies and processes into the hospital's fourth floor renovation of the Family Care Ward. By combining Vocera, with the Hill-Rom Nurse Call System and the Connexall clinical workflow automation platform the team created a horizontal and vertical Hands Free Communication System that allows for patient to staff and staff to staff direct communication.
The team's time and effort paid off and they achieved all their goals. The improvements were felt by staff and patients. By the end of the year, the system was in 17 departments and had reached a weekly average of 2000 staff-to-staff calls and 800 patient-to-nurse calls.
Besides the improvements in workflow, contact time and better utilization of nursing staff, improvements were also seen in nurse response time and patient satisfaction. Nurse response time showed a decrease from an average of four minutes to one minute from the time the patient presses the nurse call button until the patient's assigned nurse responds. The improved workflow also allowed for fewer staff to see more patients.
This decrease in response time resulted in a dramatic reduction in patient falls of over 88 percent because patients were not tempted to get out of their beds to acquire assistance. Inpatient satisfaction increased by 11 percent over the first three months of HFCS use.
The team took this success and developed a business case that has been used by other Medical Command facilities. The HFCS implemented at EACH is one way Army Medicine is quickly moving towards a system for health.
Team Leader Name: LTC Francisco Dominicci, HID
Team Member Names:
Jeremy Lewis, IMD Zack Fife, IMD
Kimberly Smith, DEM Kevin Griffin, IMD
Cindi McKnight, DEM MAJ May Joyce Vertido, HID
Robert Lackey, IMD Catherine Mercado, DEM
Dennis Kottenstette, IMD SSG Jose Carrera, DOBH
SGT Joshua Weston, MPBC Kym Lagafuaina, DOS
MAJ Thomas Hardy, IMD MAJ Christopher Baglio, HID
Joseph Preiss, IMD Bernadette Mayes, DOM
Related Links:
Evans Army Community Hospital WEb Page
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