Patients should be at the forefront of the healthcare experience. But sometimes their voices aren’t adequately heard. That’s the problem the University of Chicago Medicine was experiencing a few years ago, and it wanted a solution.
Sue Murphy, a nurse and the chief experience officer at UChicago Medicine, said she and her team are responsible for crafting a culture that improves the care of patients and the lives of clinicians.
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“I started to think about how we can capture the patient’s voice in a different way,” she said in a phone interview in late October. “We didn’t have a way to capture their voice in a way that was unified, clear and concise.” Traditional rounding — which involves taking notes on a piece of paper — wasn’t cutting it.
After conducting research on alternative options, UChicago Medicine connected with Vocera, a San Jose, California-based company offering mobile communication solutions within the healthcare sector. The medical center eventually deployed the Vocera Care Rounds solution.
With the digital tool, a nurse can complete rounds using an iPad with Vocera’s technology. During a round, the nurse can ask the patient questions. The Vocera tool then serves as a data collection resource, providing clinical team members with patient feedback.
At the time of the interview, Murphy said 28 departments within her organization are using the solution, which has been used for about 12,000 rounds.
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As UChicago Medicine continues cultivating the Vocera tool, nurses have started coming up with ideas to improve it, Murphy said. For instance, the team has been able to hone the questions they ask patients during rounds, making the users a bigger part of the overall solution.
Additionally, Murphy noted that the rounding tool has helped improve the experience of the medical center’s patients.
However, technology alone doesn’t solve the problem. “The tool’s the tool,” Murphy said. “I can’t say because we use this tool, everything’s improved.”
Improving the process involves cultivating a culture of staff engagement and patient engagement as well, she noted.
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