Caring for our caregivers in body, mind and spirit during the COVID-19 pandemic

New York City became the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. The surge of critically ill patients combined with widespread social distancing measures created extraordinary challenges for healthcare workers. Many frontline workers experienced significant physical, psychological, and emotional distress. They faced demanding patient care responsibilities while managing personal obligations and health concerns. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was imperative that NewYork-Presbyterian care for its workforce’s physical, psychological and emotional needs, not only because of our commitment to our colleagues as people, but also because of our obligation to continue to deliver high quality care and experience to the patients, families and communities we serve. Research shows there is a vital link between employee experience and patient experience. Employees who feel supported will be more engaged, which leads to higher quality care and a better patient experience. At NewYork-Presbyterian, we supported our workforce holistically in body, mind and spirit so they could remain strong for the journey ahead and continue to serve our patients, families and communities throughout and at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic. We learned that proactively communicating, supporting physical health and mental health needs and acknowledging bereavement was critical to responding to this crisis. Experience Framework This article is associated with the Staff & Provider Engagement lens of The Beryl Institute Experience Framework. (http://bit.ly/ExperienceFramework) Access other PXJ articles related to this lens. Access other resources related to this lens

BenchMarks 2007, December 7

BenchMarks. Friday, December 7, 2007 The community newsletter of The Rockefeller University BenchMarks is published monthly and is distributed on the campus of The Rockefeller University. It produced by the Office of Communications and Public Affairshttps://digitalcommons.rockefeller.edu/benchmarks_2007/1002/thumbnail.jp

Exploring the Use of the Timed Up and Go Test to Identify Patient Fall Risk in an Inpatient Geriatric Psychiatry Unit

Background: Patient falls during hospitalization influence healthcare costs and quality, and hospitals are mandated to complete fall risk assessments on all patients. Inpatient geriatric psychiatry units have the highest fall rates in the acute care setting, and most falls in this population occur during the mobility tasks of transfers and ambulation. The Timed Up and Go (TUG) test includes these two specific functional tasks, and has been used to predict falls in other geriatric populations, but has never been tested in an inpatient geriatric psychiatry unit. The purpose of this study was to determine if the TUG is a predictive tool to identify high fall risk patients in the inpatient geriatric psychiatry setting. Methods: The study was a retrospective chart review using a between groups design. The sample was obtained from patients admitted to one inpatient geriatric psychiatry unit during the four month study period. Results: The total sample size was N = 62 and included 33 non-fallers and 29 fallers. The mean age of fallers (M = 75.79, SD = 9.60) was not significantly different from the age of non-fallers (M = 74.03, SD = 7.62), p = .424. Both groups had higher proportions of female subjects; non-faller 75.8% (n = 25) female and faller 69.0% (n = 20) female. Most non-fallers (84.8%) completed the TUG testing without an assistive device, while most fallers (48.3%) used a walker. A significant difference was found between the TUG times of non-fallers and fallers, U = 737.00, z = 3.65, p = \u3c.001, r = .46. Fallers took longer to complete the TUG test (Mdn = 26.48) than non-fallers (Mdn = 13.56). The TUG time predictor variable was statistically significant, p = .002. Increasing TUG times were associated with an increased likelihood of patient falls (OR = 1.10). The optimal TUG cut-off score was 16.46 seconds, with 79.3% sensitivity and 72.7% specificity. Conclusions: The TUG was found to be a predictive tool to identify high fall risk patients in the inpatient geriatric psychiatry setting. A cut-off time of 16.46 seconds is recommended to identify non-fallers from fallers in this patient population

Applications of health information exchange information to public health practice

Increased information availability, timeliness, and comprehensiveness through health information exchange (HIE) can support public health practice. The potential benefits to disease monitoring, disaster response, and other public health activities served as an important justification for the US’ investments in HIE. After several years of HIE implementation and funding, we sought to determine if any of the anticipated benefits of exchange participation were accruing to state and local public health practitioners participating in five different exchanges. Using qualitative interviews and template analyses, we identified public health efforts and activities that were improved by participation in HIE. HIE supported public health activities consistent with expectations in the literature. However, no single department realized all the potential benefits of HIE identified. These findings suggest ways to improve HIE usage in public health

News from Hope College, Volume 21.4: February, 1990

https://digitalcommons.hope.edu/news_from_hope_college/1088/thumbnail.jp

User Interfaces for Patient-Centered Communication of Health Status and Care Progress

The recent trend toward patients participating in their own healthcare has opened up numerous opportunities for computing research. This dissertation focuses on how technology can foster this participation, through user interfaces to effectively communicate personal health status and care progress to hospital patients. I first characterize the design space for electronic information communication to patients through field studies conducted in multiple hospital settings. These studies utilize a combination of survey instruments, and low- and high-fidelity prototypes, including a document-editing prototype through which users can view and manage clinical data to automatically associate it with progress notes. The prototype, activeNotes, includes the first known techniques supporting clinical information requests directly within a document editor. A usage study with ICU physicians at New York-Presbyterian Hospital (NYP) substantiated our design and revealed how electronic information related to patient status and care progress is derived from a typical Electronic Health Record system. Insights gained from this study informed following studies to understand how to design abstracted, plain-language views suitable for patients. We gauged both patient and physician responses to information display prototypes deployed in patient rooms for a formative study exploring their design. Following my reports on this study, I discuss the design, development and pilot evaluations of a prototype Personal Health Record application providing live, abstracted clinical information for patients at NYP. The portal, evaluated by cardiothoracic surgery patients, is the first of its kind to allow patients to capture and monitor live data related to their care. Patient use of the portal influenced the subsequent design of tools to support users in making sense of online medication information. These tools, designed with nurses and pharmacists and evaluated by cardiothoracic surgery patients at NYP, were developed using topic modeling approaches and text analysis techniques. Embodied in a prototype called Remedy, they enable rapid filtering and comparison of medication-related search results, based on a number of website features and content topics. I conclude by discussing how findings from this series of studies can help shape the ongoing design and development of patient-centered technology

The Wooster Voice (Wooster, OH), 1961-03-24

This issue of the Wooster Voice features a report on the election of the Wooster Queen, a lecture by a returning Wooster professor on Christianity, a report on student elections, and a proposed change to the etiquette enforcement policy of the school. Page 2 features an editorial of the Wooster Voice calling for campus reforms with regard to several policies such as mandatory church attendance. Also prominently featured is a report on the actions of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, and an editorial calling for reform to the campus election policy of keeping the vote count secret. Page 3 is the sports section. Page 4 contains another report on the House Committee on Un-American Activities and continues the debate over Wooster\u27s religious policies from previous pages.https://openworks.wooster.edu/voice1961-1970/1007/thumbnail.jp

Information Systems and Healthcare XXX: Charting a Strategic Path for Health Information Technology

Despite both the slow diffusion of information technology (IT) throughout health organizations and the high cost of implementation, organizations must focus on key strategic applications that deliver high quality care at lower costs. Identifying the strategic applications that support important healthcare processes is challenging. In this article we propose a framework for developing this high level perspective of strategic health information technology (HIT) applications. We then classify into the components of the framework numerous HIT applications and initiatives reported in the media. Based on an existing framework, we identify two critical dimensions that capture two important characteristics of a healthcare delivery process, namely, the degree of mediation and the degree of collaboration. A healthcare process with a high degree of mediation involves a large series of activities in a sequential manner. Processes with a low degree of mediation “understand” that most participants in care delivery contribute directly, often simultaneously, to the final result. The underlying principle for this dimension is the level of functionality of the application. The degree of collaboration refers to the extent to which information is exchanged among the participants in a process. Depending on the degree of exchange, one can identify processes as having higher or lower degrees of collaboration. The underlying principle for this dimension is the degree of interoperability among the applications. Strategic HIT applications lie on a continuum path from a low-high degree of mediation to a low-high degree of collaboration. Our examples show that healthcare delivery organizations evolve their HIT from ad-hoc isolated systems to interoperable, integrated digital health systems. The strategic framework provides a high level perspective of HIT while assisting in the evaluation of potential HIT candidates for implementation

A Team-Based Approach to Studying Complex Healthcare Processes

Communication is a critical aspect of clinical work. In 2010, the Joint Commission (JC) found that gaps in communication were among leading factors contributing to medical errors. Healthcare processes, such as patient discharge, depend on interdisciplinary communication to be successful. Electronic health records (EHRs) have the potential to facilitate communication and information sharing between interdisciplinary care team members; however, challenges remain in designing tools for team-based care and questions remain in understanding how EHRs impact interdisciplinary team communication. This dissertation focuses on understanding how EHRs can be designed to support communication and information sharing within interdisciplinary patient care teams. The first aim of the dissertation investigated how EHRs impact interdisciplinary clinical teams’ communication, shared mental models, and information sharing activities. The results showed that implementing new EHR tools appeared to have little impact on communication and shared mental models, but new information sharing activities mediated by EHR developed. These changes and lack thereof suggest that new EHR tools will be specifically needed to facilitate interdisciplinary team information sharing activities. The second aim of the dissertation investigates the information sharing activities and information needs of interdisciplinary team members during patient discharge. The results showed that the information clinicians sought out during discharge depended on the roles that person played as well as the progress of the discharge process. Future EHR tools should be aware of how patient care teams are progressing through the patient discharge process in order to provide information contextualized to their current tasks. In conclusion, interdisciplinary team communication and information sharing remain poorly supported by current EHRs and new tools designed specifically for interdisciplinary teams should provide information based on the completion of team activities