Over the course of the last two months, I have accepted not one but two challenges. The first was issued by Ron Remy, our CEO at Mobile Heartbeat, as he declared 2018 the Year of the Workflow. The second was from Dr. Jonathan Perlin, HCA’s Clinical Services Group President and CMO, who in the latest volume of Clinical Excellence at HCA invited us to join him in a “year of challenge and opportunity through which we change healthcare and improve human life.” Dr. Perlin reminds us that we must lead with clinical expertise, examine the findings we uncover in the course of patient care, and scrutinize, validate, and leverage the knowledge we garner to improve patient care. We are being called to change the world in 2018.

Not being one to ever say no to a challenge, and with the winter Olympics still bright in the rearview mirror, I have accepted the torch passed by both of these insightful patient advocates and have prepared myself and team for an Olympic-level effort.

While the two challenges may seem only remotely related, they are in fact categorically connected and align with the very vision of the Mobile Heartbeat clinical team. We are not satisfied with sitting back to rest on our laurels after the technical deployment and implementation of MH-CURE.  Driven by curiosity and motivated with the ongoing knowledge acquired at each implementation, we are persistently seeking to understand how care is impacted by the MH-CURE platform.

Our team’s efforts always begin with a current state evaluation. This evaluation includes a detailed analysis of current state workflows across all disciplines and departments. The resultant insight garnered from this deep dive provides us with a baseline:

  • What unique workflows and work-arounds are being utilized in today’s environment?
  • Where are the redundancies and wasted steps?
  • What partial or broken technical solutions are relied upon within the workflow?
  • What amount of time savings is estimated with the removal of repeat and inefficient work in a future state?
  • Where do we expect that integrations with Mobile Heartbeat and other systems will make the most impact?

Wherever and whenever possible, we are partnering with MH-CURE deployment sites and establishing metrics by evaluating pre-implementation measurements.  Utilizing both workflows analysis, time and motions studies, and qualitative user satisfaction surveys, we can understand the beginning state. These measurements help us to quantify and qualify how well we are meeting the objectives healthcare organization stakeholders set out to attain with the adoption of MH-CURE.

Completing the second set of measurements post-implementation delivers a quantified picture of change within the organization. In essence, we ascertain how the workflow changes have impacted the organization by improving the efficiency of operational and clinical teams.  We chart how the communication related to patient care between the interdisciplinary team and the clinician lead to improved treatment communication and the provision of life-saving information at the point of care.  It is within the absence of measurement that doubt occurs.  Without knowing what was and what now is, we cannot understand how our communication workflows have improved the previous state. Once new workflows are implemented, we re-measure, evaluate, then re-analyze workflows and strategize how to iterate within the organization to enjoy continuous improvements.

Workflow analysis is the thread that is woven throughout the fabric of communication-focused process improvement. Eliminating the one-and-done mentality is essential to ongoing relationships and the continuous improvement process is essential for significant efficiency gains. We are in it for the long haul to ensure we meet our internal goals and facilitate that same impact for our customers and our customers’ patients.  After all, our customers’ patients are also our patients.

Yes, Ron and Dr. Perlin, we are intricately involved in the workflows that impact the care we provide. We know that continuous evaluation of current state and a clear vision for future state requires constant analysis, goal-setting, iteration and measurement. This is what the clinical team lives and breathes. The quality of MH-CURE operational integration and adoption is inseparable from the quality of our continuous improvement work.  With our workflows, we believe we are changing the world in 2018, and we are determined to give you the data to prove it.