McLaren Northern Michigan is a 202-bed regional hospital located in Petoskey serving residents in 22 counties across northern Lower Michigan and the eastern part of the Upper Peninsula. More than 230 physicians represent nearly all medical and surgical specialties, enabling full-service care with an emphasis on cardiology, cancer, orthopedics and neurosciences.

THE PROBLEM

McLaren faced the challenge of ensuring the right infrastructure was in place to build an ideal working and healing environment for its patients.

"Having been with the organization for so long, I participated in the original discussions about what our board of directors envisioned for our community and how we needed to enhance our services," said Jennifer Woods, RN, chief nursing officer and vice president of patient care services. 

"Around 2015, we opened discussions and vetted industry partners for the construction and renovation of our existing infrastructure in a way that aligned with what we thought our future would look like."

Over the years, the hospital had invested in infrastructure, but things had gotten to the point where the ongoing investment was better spent on larger-scale improvements that would correct longstanding issues, such as dual occupancy rooms.

"We talked with the board about enhancing services, improving the patient experience, and increasing privacy, as well as comfort, all of which have been emphasized more and more during the pandemic," Woods said.

"We also had goals to decrease the noise in the environment to create a space focused solely on health and healing," she continued. "Just as the noise was a factor, clutter also was a factor, and our board recognized these issues."

The other priority was making sure the care team had a safe work environment. The hospital needed to ensure it gave its teams a modern workplace that would prioritize their health and wellbeing, while enhancing their ability to perform at their highest capabilities.

PROPOSAL

Focusing on the safety and wellbeing of staff and the community, a multidisciplinary team of leaders at McLaren Northern Michigan partnered to ensure the right infrastructure was in place. A critical foundation of the project, called "Building the Future of Health Care," focused on creating an intelligent network of connectivity and transparency.

The hospital selected technologies from communications IT vendor Vocera to standardize care-team collaboration and communication at every point of care. Woods said this was essential to creating a connected, healing environment.

"We worked with our integration partners to create interfaces between the different systems to establish a technologically advanced in-room experience for patients."

Jennifer Woods, RN, McLaren Northern Michigan

"Smart technology to enhance communication and overall safety was critical," she stated. "That was our end-all-be-all goal, and whatever technology solutions we considered had to accomplish those goals. We also equipped all patient rooms with an i-bed, electronic whiteboard and bedside patient tablet.

"We worked with our integration partners to create interfaces between the different systems to establish a technologically advanced in-room experience for patients," she added. "Our integration partners included Vocera, Stryker, Cerner, Medi+Sign, MidMark, Rauland SoundCom and Banyan Medical Systems."

For example, when a fall-risk patient is trying to get out of bed, the i-bed sends an alert to the electronic whiteboard that can verbally tell the patient to stay in bed, an alert flashes for nearby staff to see, and the patient's nurse is sent a message through the available technology.

"These were some key elements to the technology we considered when we were looking to drive sustainable change," Woods said.

MEETING THE CHALLENGE

To enhance communication and collaboration, McLaren Northern Michigan deployed Vocera technologies to connect care teams across the hospital, including in its new 182,000-square-foot Offield Family Pavilion.

Nurses, physicians and other care-team members throughout the hospital are equipped with the Vocera Vina smartphone application and the hands-free, wearable Vocera Smartbadge.

"Our staff uses the Smartbadge for no-touch, voice-controlled communications," Woods explained. "What we liked about no-touch communication is that you can carry or wear the device that allows you to request what you need, even while wearing PPE.

"For example, if I'm a nurse in a room providing care, I can simply ask for the pharmacist caring for the patient in 101, or I can ask for the transporter who's helping with Level II South," she continued. "I can ask by their name, the role assigned or position, which gets me to who I need almost immediately."

Previously, staff would have to connect with an operator, which required using a phone after breaking out of personal protective equipment. Now, the workflow is expedited.

"We chose to provide this tool to nearly all of our employees because of the variety of needs they might face on a given day," Woods said. "They might need environmental services to help with turning over a room, transportation or an intensivist. We also use this system for calling codes, because most of our employees have the Smartbadge or the Vina app.

"These solutions can integrate with several of our clinical and operational systems, which can help speed up response times and help reduce cognitive overload," she continued. "Clinicians can manage alerts and alarm notifications."

The Vocera Engage workflow engine prioritizes and routes notifications with actionable information, such as patient assist calls and alerts, physiologic monitoring alerts, and critical test results, to the right clinician on their device of choice, including the Spectralink Versity smartphone running the Vina app.

RESULTS

"Although we finished the physical building expansion in August 2021, we have implemented a staged rollout for our technology integrations," Woods noted. "This rollout is expected to be completed by summer of 2022.

"Once all integrations are complete, we will be able to report out on a variety of safety and communication metrics," she added. "We anticipate seeing improvements in patient falls, patient experience communication scores, nurse call response times, call light response times and staff safety events."

ADVICE FOR OTHERS

"It is important to engage team members across the organization from multiple disciplines to understand their challenges, needs and potential solutions," Woods advised. "To help get buy-in, provide an opportunity for team members to see how technology can help improve their workflow and help improve safety before the investment is made."

People should consider how new technology can serve as a recruitment or retention tool for clinical staff, and how important that is while the industry faces a considerable labor shortage, she added.

"To have our teams focused on continuous improvement, innovative problem-solving, and using the technology available today are all ways we also attract staff to a place where they can do their best work," she concluded.

Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT
Email the writer: bsiwicki@himss.org
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