McLaren Northern Michigan (Petoskey, Michigan) has been selected as the winner of ECRI’s 16th Health Technology Excellence Award for its successful integration of patient care technologies to be deployed in a newly constructed addition to the hospital. ECRI’s annual Award recognizes outstanding initiatives undertaken by ECRI member healthcare institutions to improve patient safety, reduce costs, or otherwise facilitate better strategic management of health technology.
“You could hear a pin drop.” Odds are you know that feeling: sitting in a meeting where the tension is high and the outcome is not at all certain.
That’s how Rich Reamer described the atmosphere when McLaren brought together – in one room, at one time – the sales and technical teams from the vendors who would help equip a newly constructed addition to the facility. As the regional manager of clinical engineering at McLaren, Reamer was intimately involved in the organization’s efforts to build an integrated patient care technology environment within the planned addition to McLaren Northern Michigan hospital.
When designing the addition, the organization knew it wanted more than just new physical spaces; it wanted to build the safest and most advanced integrated patient experience. That meant putting considerable thought into which technologies would be used in those spaces, how those technologies would interact with one another, and what implementation measures would be required to ensure that the technologies functioned well together.
The Challenge: Achieving Integration
McLaren’s approach to achieving its goals involved bringing together the suppliers of the technologies that would be used in the space, and then challenging them to work together to build an integrated solution that streamlined the delivery of information to the care team.
One of the most consequential parts of the project was the aforementioned meeting. The participants represented companies that provide high-quality solutions within specific areas of expertise, namely nurse call, patient monitoring, staff communications, electronic medical record (EMR), real-time locating system (RTLS), patient safety, virtual nursing, patient education, Internet Protocol television (IPTV), and patient interaction and entertainment.
During that meeting, McLaren nursing leadership and clinical engineering management presented the following challenge: What would it look like if all of you worked together to build the best integrated solution? What additional benefits might be realized if we, collectively, work to integrate each of your products so that information is delivered to our care teams through a single interface?
Reamer recounts that, at first, the participants were protective of their products, and didn’t necessarily want to mix their products in with the others. “But once everybody opened up their mind to what we were doing, the walls started coming down.” It didn’t take long for the initial discomfort to give way to excitement and energy. Ultimately, vendors saw potential in being able to tout their successful integration with other technologies.
For McLaren, success required selecting product solutions that use an open architecture and identifying vendor partners who were willing to collaborate.
The Result: Tools for Improving Patient Care and the Patient Experience
One of McLaren’s key requirements for its technology-integration initiative was to optimize the flow of information to and from clinicians – providing them with data they need to care for patients, but doing so in a way that is not overwhelming. The organization’s extensive planning yielded a system that integrates the following technologies and data sources:
- Staff communication device (Vocera). McLaren selected a hands-free communication device to be the primary connection between clinicians and the other integrated technologies. The system supports team communications with simple voice commands, and it delivers data from the other systems without interrupting patient-caregiver interactions.
- Nurse call system (Rauland R5). The nurse call system informs clinicians of patient requests and emergent needs.
Physiologic monitoring and telemetry (Spacelabs). These devices send critical data about the patient’s physiologic condition.
Bed (Stryker iBed Awareness). This system provides information about the patient’s bed settings, and it issues alerts regarding potential falls. - EMR (Cerner). Data from many of the other systems regarding the proper management of the patient is recorded in, and accessible through, the EMR.
- Electronic whiteboard (Medi+Sign). This system, which incorporates a digital whiteboard in the patient’s room, displays automated and real-time updates related to the patient’s care, including care team assignments and the schedule for the day.
Virtual nurse (Banyan). A TV-mounted camera and audio system in the patient room allow a “virtual nurse” (i.e., a nurse connecting from a remote location) to assist with questions and concerns, and even assist during alert events by providing an extra set of eyes and ears, as well as audible support. - RTLS (Midmark). The system helps users quickly locate staff and devices, which can be critical during safety events.
A second key requirement was to provide patients with easy access to the resources they need to understand their care and to be comfortable during their stay. The following components are instrumental in that regard:
- Bedside patient tablet (Curbell Rego). This tablet replaces the traditional nurse call pendant/remote control. Patients can use the device to call for nurse assistance or to control the television and room lights. They also can use it to access their medical record through their private portal within the McLaren Health Care system, to communicate with the virtual nurse, or to access the Internet, stream videos, or use social media.
- IPTV (Telehealth IPTV). In addition to providing cable TV and other patient entertainment, this system can be used to connect with the virtual nurse; to view test results, radiology images, or documentation of treatment and other requested information; or to display patient-specific education regarding the patient’s stay and their condition.
McLaren notes that the integrated system offers nine total systems working together – either in total integration or in a supporting capacity – to improve safety and quality outcomes for the hospital’s patients.
ECRI congratulates the McLaren team for its successful effort to get technology vendors to work together to implement a solution that optimizes the flow of information to and from clinicians, and that provides patients with easy access to the resources they need to understand their care and to be comfortable during their stay.
To Learn More . . .
To read more about this, and other award-winning projects, visit www.ecri.org/health-devices- award-winners. If you have a project that you’d like considered for the 2023 Award, visit https://www.ecri.org/health-technology-excellence-award, and tell ECRI about it. The Award competition is a great way to gain recognition for the work you do to improve patient safety, reduce costs, or otherwise facilitate better strategic management of health technology. (Applicants must subscribe to one of ECRI’s programs or services.) You can also contact ECRI by telephone at 610-825-6000, ext. 5891, or by email at clientservices@ecri.org.
