Cultivating Innovation instead of Conformity

I had the opportunity to see Neal Patterson speak at the American Royal scholarship lunch. For those of you non-Kansas City people who read my blog – American Royal is a foundational aspect of Kansas City which is facing a momentous challenge….but I will close with my thoughts on that…

Neal has an interesting way of communicating, if you haven’t experienced him in a large venue you should. He speaks as if looking at a whiteboard – where he can see how everything fits nicely together yet he is searching for the next white space that he is supposed to identify and fill. As he moved into a segment on Healthcare (industry) he made several statements that have sat with me for the last few days.

Here was my take away: We as a culture/ industry have moved from innovating in healthcare to finding a way to work within the constraints the government has put on us. This has created a mantra of focusing our creative efforts towards efficiency and conformity to squeeze the turnip. Many have resigned to the idea that government provided healthcare will be our new way of life. I believe this will strangle and destroy the ability for the innovators to create a new way of being.

Gut check…..how is the product we have created and our roadmap conforming to the government constraints? Are we answering the problems of today without considering the opportunity of a future that is NOT created by Obamacare?

As a company, Sphere3 has been tagged in number of different buckets. Early on people continuously called us a “bolt on reporting software for nurse call” which always annoyed me. Their short sighted understanding of what “reporting” is and what the impact of patient generated data could be on the care delivery model….if you can’t see beyond “reporting” then you are stuck in the early 1990s and need to get your head out of the sand. Reporting is dead – it is a post mortem and if your company is still focused on reports…..then to quote my 10 year old “dude”.

Most recently, we have been tagged as a survey tool…..ugh….while our tool can gather everything from patient experience to site specific data. The FUNCTION of survey is really meaningless without a true intersection of patient behavioral and caregiver engagement information. When we try to use “feeling” to define process we lose the ability to have long lasting impact.

I believe that a product category will emerge this year that will even go beyond Alarm Fatigue. It will identify how the patient generated data produced in a useable format at the point of care beyond dashboards and beyond that of an alarm or alert. I believe the category will be AS impactful as Electronic Medical Record. This spider web of information produced BY the patient will be AS important as information produced ABOUT the patient. The information produced BY the patient must be compiled and visually produced in a useable manner as engageable digestible information…at the point of care.

Hospital Leaders, do me a favor the next time a sales person shows you their reports….ask them “How do you expect me to use that at the point of care? How do you expect me to create an environment of quality care that is actively evolving with a piece of paper?” The next time a sales person shows you their survey tool…… ask them “How do the actions of the care team compare to that patients perception?” The next time a sales person throws the word “Alarm Fatigue” make them really tell you how their tool will impact care….how will they really engage and change the behaviors of your care team other than a Pavlovian response to yet another alarm…….

I promised a close on the American Royal….so if you are not from here then the end is not for you but I welcome you to read on.

Our city has a lack of vision accompanied by a lack of appreciation for our Agrarian roots that should be seen as a strength and not a weakness. Do you not see that the American Royal is part of who we are? Or are you trying to define us by the music concerts and monster truck rallies at the Sprint center?

My personal rant which is shared in good company by Neal Patterson..…children today do not understand how food gets to our tables, but there is an uprising of individuals who believe in buying local or even producing their own food. I live in a rural area. (Across the street from cows and surrounded by farming) I desire to know where my food originates. We have an obligation to our community and region to continue to support and promote those who feed us. There is a slippery slope and danger to a community that fails to recognize where our food originates. We have an obligation to our area to encourage and enable young people to learn how to be the next generation of farmers.

Agriculture has become a growth industry again in our economy. The promise of technology and innovation as America feeds the expanding population of the world is a great opportunity. Our youth have an opportunity to cultivate promising careers in a sector of our economy undergoing great change.

My question back to the AR is how are you cultivating growth in the city which birthed you? How are you innovating beyond rural to impact the local community beyond merely brining in additional attendees to your events? How are you reaching into the schools to provide education and perspective?

Don’t you agree city leaders……or do you think that your food comes from a grocery store?

Looking for your Joseph Moment

10 years ago mom started calling me Job (the Biblical Character) not because I had monumentus faith, but because my personal life was a series of unfortunate events.…..it seemed for a period of time that if an unfortunate event could occur that I was magnetically attracted to it. I started waiting for the next bad thing to happen. Professionally, it was different...I was beyond good – driven, killer instinct, aggressive, admittedly immature but always driving forward. Then one day my professional life hit a road bump…..

We picked up a product that – on the surface was amazing – it zipped, it zinged, it could walk on water….I sold 4 enterprise level platforms with that promise…..then during the first install….it sank like the titanic without a life boat. I thought – WAIT a sec – my professional life is amazing…I am a 25 year old power house and this is not supposed to happen….but it did. I began to see my Job life seeping into my wonderful career.

I experienced true grace by a senior leadership team at that hospital. Even though we offered to replace the software with another for free – they determined it was best to identify how to make it work in an alternate workflow. (My first impromptu design job) That grace is a post for a different day about partnership with Vendors...

Following that experience, as a very humbled professional, I went to each of the remaining CIO’s to let them know what had happened, and that we no longer going to be working with the product. It was hard for a 25 year old to say good bye to over 50% of the years revenue based on a poor choice – it was harder to sit in front of those people who had put their trust in me and admit my failure. Each meeting went different – one was angry and gave me a solid chewing….like any professional I took it then went to my car and cried all the way home. The next told me he was disappointed in me but determined that the product was solid and wanted to proceed directly with the manufacture – he shook my hand, told me he appreciated my honesty, and said my Dad had done a good job raising me. (He had worked with my dad for years) That made me cry in his office.

The final CIO shocked me. As I sat in her office reviewing the challenges and reasoning for my need to step away from the recommended product – she stopped me and said “Kourtney, can you just tell us how this whole things should be set up and what to do in this alarm area?” I shrugged, started to lower my gaze to the floor and said “Well, I….” She interrupted sternly and said “I will pay you for your time.” What? She will pay me for my time, but I am the idiot who brought her a product that didn’t work. Confused I blurted out “You mean like workflow documentation?” “Yes, can you do that or not?” To which I responded “Absolutely” and my journey began.

One of my greatest professional failures became the launching point for one of my greatest successes – Sphere3 and a consulting career I loved - which eventually lead to Aperum.

That was my "Joseph Moment" - the moment I realized I was not destined for a disaster at every turn that lead to nothing. If you don’t know the story of Joseph (from the Old Testament), it’s worth the read. But here is the Cliff Notes – Joseph was going to be killed by his brothers but then they decided to sell him into slavery….he had a series of unfortunate events…and then another series of unfortunate events....that eventually lead him to a position of power that allowed him to save his family…..if he would not have been sold into slavery by his brothers then the entire family would have died.

Are you so busy waiting for your next failure or lamenting over your current disaster that you are missing the moment of your next great success? Do you see each “bad thing” that happens as pointless or is it possibly a progression to the Joseph moment you were meant to have.

Time to change your perspective - time to change your focus.

Interruptions.....

I stopped to visit a friend in the hospital and had a chance to observe some clinical workflow in person.  The Nurse walked in.  She had a large brick of a phone wrapped in a plastic case pulling the side of her scrubs uncomfortably down.   She began asking questions as she prepared the medications.  She reached into her pocket and pulled out an Iphone……confusing…..then I realized it was her medication scanner.

As she was preparing to hand the medications to my friend the brick rang…..loud….very loud…. She apologized as she reached down and complained that the previous shift must have had the ringer turned up. (I was there at 8am in the morning so evidently night shift likes to carry a mobile alarm clock) She silenced it and went back to medication work.  I asked “Do you like your phone” – she held up her iphone and said “This isn’t used as a phone it’s just for meds and stuff.” I laughed and smiled “No the brick wrapped in bubble wrap hooked to your scrubs.”  She laughed and said “No Comment” as she finished putting the medication in the cup and talking to Holly she looked at me and said “That thing interrupts me when I am trying to work with a patient and it’s just rude to the patient. I don’t think it’s very practical…..I like to be fully engaged when I am with a patient”

Ouch…every technologist who has designed a decentralized workflow should wince when they hear that – this nurse is a young lady who grew up with a cell phone in her hand wanted to be what? “fully engaged with her patient”  She wanted to walk into a patient’s room and only think about what she needs to do in that moment.  She wanted to focus on getting my friends medications accurate, make sure she didn’t miss any aspect that could be a warning sign…..crazy thing….she wanted to be a nurse.

As I worked on this post – I started writing about ideas for fixing….pointing out that holding on to old technology only hurts your facility….listening to nursing because they actually do the work….blah blah blah…..but then I started think this isn’t just a hospital thing.

I was sitting in my family room – Noah (aka #4) on my lap talking about his day and my phone rang…..in that moment I stopped engaging with Noah and answered my phone…I tried to justify in my mind that I had tried to get ahold of this person all day and needed the information….as I hung up Noah said “Mom, can you just talk to me for a minute”….ouch…. As I began writing this blog for “Linkedin Content” to promote my industry knowledge…..I am pausing for a moment.

Our workflow design reflects our society design….the nurses response is reflecting the shift in our society to tolerate interruptions.   She recognizes that everyone would like a bit of undivided attention, especially when they are in a new environment.  She recognizes that the technology she had been given was not serving her well and was making her less effective in her job.  She recognizes that – just like Noah – her focus on my friend in that moment should be the most important part of her day.

So this post should serve two purposes – rethink how you are designing your clinical workflow and alarm design.  Clinicians are fatigued because their attention is constantly being split.  Clinicians are fatigued because we, as technologist, aren’t doing our jobs.

The second purpose – does your personal life reflect an interrupt driven society? When will that become not ok for you?

Last night…..I left my phablet in the kitchen….turned the ringer off….and enjoyed my family and some friends.  It was probably the best night I have had in months…..today…..the ringer is still turned off.

It's a Tool not a Toy

I had to make a change….it was hard…my needs weren’t being met…..after lots of consideration….I got a new phone.   It all started when my husband made a change I couldn’t believe… he bought a Samsung Galaxy (aka the phablet – phone/tablet).  I teased him a lot…why would anyone want anything other than the iphone.  

My love of these little Apple Devices started about 4 years ago…..The first time I saw our software, Aperum, on an iPad I was hooked – mobilizing our software allowed it to be utilized at the point of care.  The ipad is so simple to use – it’s cute – it’s trendy – dare I say sexy. In the past 4 years, I have purchased dozens of “i” products.  (Especially after I met the REQUIRED otterbox – nothing breaks like an iphone.)   As we have grown, we have made lots of trips to the AT&T store to buy new iPads for our people.  On one such trip, Kristal (our VP) and I were waiting on the salesman to retrieve our next iPad when she asked about the Samsung that David just purchased.  I teased – I joked – but by the time our sales guy got back with the tablet we were logged into Aperum and playing with it on the Samsung.  Then….it happened….he began to run us thru features…I drooled…. These were things we only dreamed about on the Apple. 

Here is what I love and why I eventually bought a Phablet….

1)      The built in Stylus….I admit I thought this is really useless and will never be used.   I use it all the time – it automatically unlocks the device when removed from its safe little corner home.  It makes selecting and typing a breeze.

2)      Typing….using the slide function where instead of typing you slide the stylus across a series of letters.  Frankly, it looks like magic that it knows what word to select.  It’s super simple and quick.

3)      Writing…there is a function on the tablet where you can write with the stylus.  I will admit the first few times it wrote some words…. maybe it was just me getting used to it but it seemed to learn my handwriting the more I used it.  It became more accurate as time went on. Which was good because I had a really embarrassing demo when it translated what I wrote into a swear word…

4)      Voice Recording…yes…it works…it’s cool. Again, use it a few times before you demonstrate it….

Here is what I find troubling…..we talk to dozens of hospitals a month and it is a rare event that the clinical staff is enabled with a tablet or even a smart phone.  I am not even just talking about floor nurses – I am talking clinical leadership. 

When we show our software and how easy it is to use at the bedside… we have nurse managers asking their CNO if they can bring in their own tablet to use.  Why?  It’s not only because they see the value of automation in their leadership rounding process using Aperum.  Frankly, they see the value of smart devices – it is not uncommon for nurses carry their personal smart phones in the pockets so they can use aps that help them do their jobs.

So, what is holding hospitals back? Budgets? Device Selection? Device Management? “Ap” Selection / Deployment? 

Here are some quicks Do’s and Don’ts:

·         Don’t Buy a Tablet for one application. (unless it’s ours.. J)  The hospital should create a team to research and understand the usability for different applications in their hospital.  Different teams need different applications.  These applications should show value in safety and satisfaction.

·         Do identify application that align with the hospital’s care models and strategies to enable safer and more satisfying patient care.

·         Do identify a mobile device management platform that meets your needs.

·         Do engage IT…. I know it sounds silly to say, but there have been times when we come to hospitals and the IT department is avoided by the clinical department (which is a blog all in itself)

·         Do buy cases….a serious cases like Otter Boxes.  Make sure you engage your infection control team to identify how these devices will be cleaned.  We have tested all sorts of cases….ones with built in keypads, zipper fronts, plush, and flashy – some of our hospitals launch their tablets naked….let’s just say mistakes were made….

·         Do understand that they are practically disposable….did I say that outloud? Yes, just like your “purpose driven” wireless phones that nurses carry.  Either buy the replacement plans for them or have a budget allocated for replacements.

·         Do buy a nice tablet….I have the war wounds on this one…cheap tablets stink in a hospital setting.  Spend the money get a name brand.

We are going to be testing Aperum in some live environments with different tools in the coming weeks.  We have hospitals looking at the Surface and others looking at the new Spectralink Smart Phone – it’s fun to be vendor neutral and get to play with all sorts of different toys…I mean tools. J  I will update you all on what we identify as positives and negatives.

Are you a Nurse or Nurse Leader?
Want to win a FREE Samsung Galaxy Tablet?

1) Like our Facebook Page
2) Share the Update with this Blog Post
3) Post a comment below about how your hospital uses tablets or smart phones.

Cancer Sucks

Usually when I arrive at a hospital there is a scheduled meeting with a CNO or there is a team of us looking at some cool new technology or fixing some alarm automation design problem.  I can’t help but be enamored when I walk onto the units and see nurses with wireless devices, call light systems in action, or new EMR being implemented.  I have a slight attention issue – so the movement of people, flashing lights, everything really kind of sends me into sensory overload….but I love it.

However, last week I didn’t visit a hospital for work.  I visited to sit with a friend as her husband passed away.  It’s amazing how still your mind can become when you are looking into the eyes of someone you care about and know they are suffering.   We stepped out of the hospital room for a moment and all I could think to say to my friend was “Cancer Sucks.”   

I hadn’t been exposed to a patient experience in a while and this one really sucker punched me in the gut. 

Yesterday, I saw that HISTALK did a great interview with my dear friend Regina Holiday.  Regina gave Sphere3 our patient voice. I am a proud member of the Walking Gallery.   She inspired me to openly talk about the patient story that launched our company, and to never forget why we started it in the first place.  I must tell you – running a startup is no cake walk – there have been many times that I want to just close the door – but I look at the picture she painted me and am reminded to fight another day. 

This was an excerpt from the interview and it is the epitome of why we need to keep listening to patients.

What would you say to healthcare software vendors?
I want you to think of your parent in that bed or your child or your wife or your husband when you’re designing software. I want you to think of them. Because every single thing you do should be to make sure they get the best possible care. God, I hope you get to that point before it happens in your very own life. If I can do anything or say anything to get you to emotionally that point where you’re thinking about them while you’re designing, then I’ve done my job.
(The entire interview is here http://histalk2.com/2014/03/10/histalk-interviews-regina-holliday-patient-advocate/ ) 

I have learned from e-patients that if we let the story – tear jerking emotional heart felt story – be a momentary event and not impact our on-going development then the battle is lost.  It has to be a part of your development conversations - part of your core values. Ours is easy: The patient is the purpose of the hospital.   

If you are a big Health IT company and you haven’t had Regina in to speak – call her, email her, find her on facebook, send her a tweet…. You owe it to your team to meet her.

In closing…. The morning after he passed away, while I was having my quiet time, I wrote this down.  Eloquence has never been my strong point, but I thought I would share it with you all anyway. 

Cancer Sucks

It does not care how old you are…. You could be a middle aged mom with young kids or a Grandpa with lots of grandkids.  You could be 80 years old or 8 years old…. Your age means nothing.

It does not care how much you weigh, if you are ugly, or beautiful in the sight of others…. Your looks mean nothing.

It does not care about the color of your skin, your race, or how you chose to live.  Those things means nothing.

 It does not care if you have a billion dollars, million dollars, a thousand dollars, a single dollar, or no dollars at all.  Your wealth means nothing.

It does not care whether you are smart or dumb whether you have a degree from the school or hard knocks or from Harvard.  Your education means nothing.

It does not discriminate…its open door policy….
We don’t get to choose whether we walk in the door….Cancer chooses for us.

Your schedule means nothing. Your loved ones mean nothing. Your plans and dreams mean nothing.
It hates…it destroys… Cancer just Sucks

So I say back to you Cancer…. The only thing you can truly impact is time.  The only joy you steal is the joy we let you steal.  You have no impact on faith because it is independent of circumstance.  You have no power over love. You never really win.

 

Zig would be Proud

When I was a kid, my Dad had a thing for Zig Ziglar.  We had videos, cassette tapes, scheduled listening times, and lots of conversations.  Dad would say “If you don’t know where you are going – you won’t know when you get there.” Coming from a man who I saw as remarkably successful, I was intent on learning his secret.   

He wrote his goals down – he made them attainable, measurable, and part of his overall strategy. I never had a problem writing down my goals….I found a notebook a while back from 1993 (you can guess my age later) and I had 10 goals written down, even a plan to obtain each of them.  The problem I have had since 1993, and even still today, is measuring along the plan consistently.  Generally, my measurements are done on a schedule, but often take several hours to collect information or run a report.

It’s interesting when you are running a growing organization how measuring consistently sometimes escape us in the hustle of things – new version releases, launches, growing customer lists, etc.  It’s more fun to think of new software features based on the latest customer feedback then to focus on the “details”.   As a small company – the devil is in the details…..as we have gotten “bigger”….we have found the devil is still in those details. 

Setting and managing goals is more than measuring the end result, it’s about measuring along the process, measuring each individuals contribution…….and doing it in an efficient way. 

On February 11^th,  Sphere3 will be releasing a new tool for our clients called myMetrics™ this tool measures individuals progress in specific categories using not only patient feedback from our Leadership Rouding tool but real metrics of actives from your call light system.  It gives the caregiver an understanding of how their efforts play into the whole strategy of improving HCAHPS.

·         What is the individual’s ability to respond – whether they are the first person to get the call or the third?  

·         What is the individuals visit rate – how often does this individual go to the patient room whether beckoned or not?

·         How does the patient perceive the care they are receiving?

HCAHPS is a balance between perception and actual execution of task.  Goals of perception mean nothing if you don’t have a quantifiable balance point – a benchmark on the task associated with achieving that goal.  A quantifiable balance point means nothing unless it can truly be applied to an individual’s performance.  

Here are some thoughts as you enter the new year:

1)      A paper or “report” based process to manage these items won’t cut it – you will spend more on the resources to pull the data then you would having a tool to do it for you “auto-magically”.

2)      Caregivers (any employee) needs a concise view of their contribution to the overall vision and strategy of the organization. 

3)      Your job as a manager should be coaching them to improvement not compiling data, and creating a report.

Alarm Fatigue Panel Discussion

Ring….Ding….Buzz……RING……DING……BUZZZ……RING……..

Medical Devices have been created to notify a care team if the patient condition has slipped outside of the desired parameters.  The alarms are essential to provide safe care for patients.  The challenge is that when a device cries wolf (even if it’s reacting the way it was designed to react) that the care team begins to become fatigued….the more fatigued they are the higher the risk to patients.

There have been a number of solutions applied to the issue – everything from large technology investments to seek a better balance of “right alarm, right person, right time” to centralized alarm command centers to reduce the interruptions on the floor to simply creating policies that enable consistency on how alarms are to be treated and reacted too.

Join Commission is focusing on challenges to the care teams caused by ALARM FATIGUE. 

I will be hosting a panel discussion providing the HOSPITAL perspective…no vendors....at the 5^th Annual Medical Device Connectivity Conference

 Panelist:

Jennifer Jackson, Director of Clinical Engineering & Device Integration

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Marni Chandler-Nicoli RN, MPH, Intensive Medicine Clinical Program Manager

InterMountain Healthcare Clinical Operations

 

 Click here to learn more and register to join us!

http://tcbi.org/mdc2013/

 

 

Alarm Fatigue Revisited

Here is a little throw back from one of our most popular posts! I know it can be searched but thought you all might enjoy seeing something from 2010....

 

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Alarm Fatigue

I was cooking a BIG meal – one with several burners going, the oven on, and even the microwave.  It was one of those “Martha Stewart has nothing on me moments.” (Ok, I was really more like a I'm a tall version of Rachel Ray) There were 4 boys running in and out asking questions and trying to “help” - other kitchen noises like the garbage disposal, can opener, food processor plus of course the TV was on in the other room. It was loud - like the Chiefs Stadium when we beat the Chargers on Monday night – LOUD! The point is I had a lot going on and neglected to set the egg timer for one of my pans and ignored the beeping on the oven……all of this to say we ended up eating at Culvers that night.

My kitchen scenario is much LESS intense than a nursing floor. No one was critically ill, there were no emotionally distraught family members, there was no Code Blue – it was a kitchen. (Well, the food was critically ill by the end of it – I digress) The point is think about your most intense - loud - busy moments and then think of how much more intense - loud - and busy the nurse is and you will begin to understand  “Alarm Fatigue”.

On a floor with 30 patients with IV pumps, nurse call, telemetry, other physiological alarms, etc there is bound to be some noise. The current methodology of listening for an alarm can really hinder productivity – but leave productivity out of it – it is a major safety concern.

Let’s take an easy one - Do you know the most common way we document a response to an IV pump alarm? The patient has pressed their call button and the nurse is notified that the IV Pump was dinging in their room. Think about how scary that is for a patient and their family – who has no idea what the dining means. Do you know the most inexpensive way to fix that problem? Automate an IV pump alarm to the caregivers wireless and explain to the patient and their family what will happen if the alarm goes off. (BTW – repeat that information every time you enter the room for rounding.)

Here’s a freebie - Depending on your nurse call system there is generally a quarter inch jack that can take a contact closure alarm – old school – this is the way my Dad did it when he sold nurse call in the early 1980’s. Order the cord you can use it tomorrow in your hospital. IF you have a question (hospital) – call or email me I will walk you through it. There are much more expensive ways to automate these as well.

The challenge is at some point in alarm automation and “management” you simply begin to displace the problem. If a clinical alarm device is trigger happy then your wireless device will be as well. Too many alarms is still TOO MANY ALARMS – just because it’s quieter on the unit does not mean its better. At some point it’s time to really review the technology that is making the alarm happen, AND review the process of who is getting what alarm when and why. The event in Boston was not due to the alarm noise, really it wasn’t even due to accountability because no one “heard” the alarm. The Critical alarm was turned off and the Warning alarms were ignored. Some automation would’ve helped the issue but it may not have solved.

Patient safety officials across the country have said the heart patient’s death at Mass. General shines a spotlight on a national problem with heart sensors and other ubiquitous patient monitoring devices. Numerous deaths have been reported because of alarm fatigue, as beeps are ignored or go unheard, or because monitors are accidentally turned off or purposely disabled by staff who find the noise aggravating.  ()http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/04/03/alarm_fatigue_linked_to_heart_patients_death_at_mass_general/?page=1

It’s tragic that a death occurred due to an alarm issue, and no family should have to go through that.  That death should be a rally point for all of us in the device industry.  

Define the Strike Zone

As a working mom with 4 boys juggling soccer practices, games, school events, and career can be really a challenge….but it’s what I signed up for when I took on this CEO role.  A few months ago, I was fortunate enough to get done early with a meeting in and grab a flight home to make it too Tucker’s baseball game.  I was glad I made it, because there was a great learning moment…..

Tucker (aka #2) stepped up on the mound and took his first warm up pitch….zip! It flew right over the catchers head and smashed into the fence causing the parents to jump.  He shook his head….frustrated….and quickly he took his next pitch…..ZIP! This time harder.   Still over the catchers head.  A mother behind me exclaimed “Someone needs to tell that boy not to throw so hard or he might injure someone.”  I bit my tongue, my response would have been “Lady wrap your kid in bubble wrap and let’s play ball.”  Instead I stood up and walked over to the fence saying “bring it down Tuck” and the mom whispered her remaining comments to her friend. 

If the other team didn’t have such an affinity to swing at high outside balls, then it would’ve been a looong inning.  The umpire held true to the strike zone so every batter went to a full count.  Fortunately, the young batters just liked to swing the bat so the inning ended quickly.  He headed to the dug out – head hung low – and sat down. 

I walked over to check on him “Hey Wild Thing are you ok?” (He didn’t understand the movie reference, but it made me smile)

“My pitches were high.”
“It happens…. sometimes we make mistakes – just bring your pitches down.  He was calling a generous strike zone -”
“But mom, it’s not my fault!” Tucker interrupted me “I didn’t expect to pitch tonight, my Dad wasn’t here to warm me up, and the coach made me clean up someone else’s mess.” 
My eye brows raised….for those of you that don’t speak Kourtney my eyebrows are my “tell” (I will never be able to play poker)… “Excuse me – whose hand did the ball leave? Who threw the pitches?”
 “Me….but”
“Tucker, you threw the pitches – you are responsible for the result.  It’s not enough just to get it over the plate – it has to be in the strike zone.  Now quit complaining and get ready for the next inning.”

Every Pitcher knows that his goal is to throw the ball over the plate in a way that the batter will swing at it (and hopefully not make contact).   It’s a universal understanding for baseball.  The umpire provides the detail on what and where he should focus – the umpire sets the actual strike zone. 

In the same way, every hospital knows that their strategic goal is to have satisfied patients, satisfied employees, and provide quality service….this has been the edict for years.  (Those goals should be the same for every business)  HCAHPS are not a new or revolutionary understanding of providing care that satisfies the needs of the patients.  HCAHPS simply defines the strike zone.  Instead of the general idea of throwing the ball over the plate – we must have “satisfied” customers – HCAHPS provides categories and expectations.  (We can all debate the validity of using “always” but that’s a blog for another time.)

Additionally, HCAHPS defines personal responsibility for our employees and a structure to hold them accountable for those actions.   Tucker threw his pitches high and outside – he was responsible for the every pitch he threw – good or bad.  He had the best intentions to throw a strike, but when the pitch left his hand….it was off the mark.  As his quasi coach that night, I was able to observe be outside the interaction from outside the field.  When he got to the dugout, I provided instruction based on his actions….in essence at the “point of care” I was able to instruct him on his next action.  In the weeks that followed, he pitched to me in the front yard and I could coach him based on his need.  (Did I mention I was a catcher for 10+years…poor kid)

As leaders in our organization it is important to engage during the work day – providing insight into how our team can improve what they are doing based on our outside perspective.   It’s critical that we create coaching moments outside of the heat of battle based on the information collected….Tucker throws a lot of high pitches.  I observed his grip, release, and stance during the game and was able to coach him in the front yard towards a better pitch.  You as leaders need information about how your employees serve your clients - defining not only what your expectation is but what your clients expectation is to find ways to continuously improve.   

 

Are you coaching your team to a better result? 

Do you have the information to be able to do so? 

Do you know what your patients except and are you meeting those expectations? 

Are you depending on post discharge data where the patients view of care has "settled" from the actual experience?

Are you comparing their feedback with the actual to define benchmarks? or do you set arbitrary benchmarks based on your gut feel?

How are you daily engaging at the point of care - gathering data, providing information, and creating coaching moments?

 

Margin

I grew up in a family where the expectation was clearly set that you would advance in knowledge beyond what the teacher was teaching at school, the preacher taught on Sunday’s, or any coach could provide.  It was your responsibility to grow in wisdom.   I have carried that thru into my adult life by maintaining a daily “quiet time” to read, study, and grow - setting aside 45 min to an hour each morning. (which happens to be the quietest time available in a house with 4 young boys.)  

A few weeks ago I started a study called “Balancing Life’s Demands” which discusses mental, physical, emotional, relational and spiritual balance.   The study uses the word “Margin” and defines it as the difference between what needs to be done and the time you have to do it.  I will have yet another birthday soon….not real thrilled about it…..so the identification of what one would call balance or margin is becoming a more focused effort.    

The ironic part of this life assessment is over the past 14 years, I have consulted with dozens of hospitals on defining margin for their organization. I analyze the obscure data generated by specific variable workflow activities and give recommendation on utilizing technology to enhance it.  The software we developed automates much of that process and enables continuous improvement.   Aperum uses data visualization to identify the often misunderstood work load driven form theinconsistent demands on their care teams generated by patients.  

I keep telling myself this life assessment should be a no brainer - life margin should not be elusive or nebulous.  I have built an entire business on designing “at a glance visuals” – where the metric quickly and effectively means something to an organization. However, it’s easy to say “I prioritize my family and church first” but if you look at the quantifiable data of hours spent per week – it’s not really a balanced metric.  (Same is true in nursing if you analyze where they spend the most time – you will find it’s not at the bedside so the perception is the main priority is not “direct” patient care….but that’s another blog.)

Strangely enough, I was a week or so in to this new study when Ed Marx posted his blog Bank Life, Not Vacation Days.  I loved that he had thought of a metric for evaluating whether or not he was in check for his commitment to balance – PTO hours accumulated vs PTO hours used.   A simple and easy to define number that encompasses a lot of information.  That’s the key – everyone knows that you have fewer PTO hours than you do total work hours – so it’s not a 1 for 1 equivalent.   It’s a predefined measurement of additional time away from work. Our payroll company generates that automatically and posts it to our online account – I honestly have never looked at it.  Not because I am pretentious and think the walls would fall down without me (I travel enough to know that my team has the operations side handled).  Mainly, I love work and I don’t really think about it unless prompted by my husband that a vacation would be nice.  I took a look after reading his blog…..let’s just say I booked a vacation next month. 

Thanks Ed.

If you are in Health IT and are not familiar with Ed’s blog  –CIO Unplugged –  he is a consistent blogger that has a way of communicating things that present more than just HIT initiatives – he gets “real”.

Community Garden

Recently, we had planting day for the community garden in South Kansas City.  Six months ago when I was asked to serve on the board of a local ministry, a community garden was not in the job description……a point I keep making to the group and I am sure they are tired of hearing.    Luckily, the garden has a fearless and passionate leader in Cama Suess (and her ever supportive and able husband Chuck) who pushed ahead and pulled me a long.  I am so glad she has done that…..

There are two aspects of a community garden.  The most apparent, it's a garden, a place to grow food to supply the need of those in need with healthy fresh produce.   It's an environment where we can do more than offer processed non-perishable food items.

A few years ago at the Cerner Conference there was a lot of buzz about “health and care” and the distinction between the two words.  We talk about solving the problems of healthcare thru better documentation, better technology, better process but a lot of solving the problems of our health system is by improving the health of the general public.   Often healthy living is reserved for those with means – it’s less expensive and easier to fill up a family on pizza rolls then it is to buy and prepare fresh food.   Food pantries are filled with the “helpers” (hamburger, tuna, chicken), canned meats & vegetables, and other processed non-perishable food items.   Not that they aren’t important but I keep thinking we can do better.

This garden will feed about 40+ families with fresh produce this summer.  It has corn, green beans, tomatoes, okra, squash, peppers, zucchini, and melons.  We plan to hand out recipes and cooking instructions with the produce.  

The second aspect is community.  This garden is about creating a sustainable renewable effort to provide an environment to serve others.  It’s a place to connect.  It’s a place where people can learn how to grow their own food while tending a garden.

On planting day, I gardened next to seasoned veterans who shared insights that you just don’t get on Pintrest. I shared a shovel with people who grew up in rural areas and have grown their own vedge for years.  I learned and so will others who work there this summer and in the future.

A garden has no boundaries, while we are a Christian ministry, this garden is a spot where people from any church, or any faith can come and serve the need of our community.  It’s about supporting a community of people – as my brother says “Being the change we want to see in the world starts with me”.

 I have launched a start-up with a zero dollar budget and had to be creative with this blog, twitter, and networking to get the word out, but I did it because it was the right thing to do patients.  It’s hard work.  As I thought about this garden – the expense, the work, the liability……the hard work…..I keep coming back to the same thought this is the right thing to do for our community.    That being said – we are getting creative to fund it and need your help. 

Please visit our Crowdfunding website and consider donating to the cause

http://www.faithlauncher.com/projects/184-south-kansas-city-community-garden#/

If you are in Kansas City - Be a part of the effort - come out and grab a shovel – visit the as I AM ministries – Outreach facebook page to learn more or visit our website www.asIAMministries.org

Thank you!

If not you….then who…..if not now…..then when.

Five Tips to launching Hospital Analytics

Hospitals everywhere are driving to a new era of Data. Some are jumping in head first to the bleeding edge technologies that promise to deliver value and others are waiting until it’s been proven before even putting their toe in the water. There is not a magic formula to healthcare data and analytics yet, but there are emerging best practices that should lead us all to more effective uses of data in our hospital environments.

Saint Luke’s is a 10 campus 1303 bed Health System in the Kansas City area. They are near and dear to my heart since I have delivered at their beautiful East campus. They are well known in the area for being high touch and high quality. I have had the pleasure of working with several of their leaders on projects and knowing others in the community.

Debe Gash has been the CIO of the health system since 2006 and has lead the organization to be well respected and win awards such as Most Wired, and recently lead them through the selection process of a new EMR. Debe has been on an Analytics journey for the past 18 months as the health system identifies and defines analytics goals and usage for their facilities.

“Health reform has driven an emphasis to analytics. Health Systems must perform as efficiently as possible while delivering positive outcomes. The only way to do this effectively is by using analytics” said Gash

1)   Get an education

Gash started her journey by seeking out wisdom of those who have been down the road before her. Her memberships at CHIME and the Health Data Warehouse Association have been invaluable resources for her to gain wisdom from her peers.

“The Health Data Warehouse Association provides webinars to its membership where my peers are presenting…not vendors” said Gash.

In a good peer group you can get the good, the bad, and the ugly without any bias or spin based on the vendors needs to sell to survive. While vendors have provided insight into the process they should not define how or what you are doing.

2)   Create a Data Governance Strategy Board

The phrase “death by committee” is a fear for many CIO’s with a vision. Saint Luke’s determined not only that there needed to be a committee who was well informed, autonomous, and had authority but they also needed to create a new role (FTE) for the organization to manage it all.

“We put in place a Director of Data Governance who works with committees to define, prioritize, execute, and evaluate our Data Governanceneeds“ said Gash

The team is comprised of key stakeholders who were committed to identifying things that could be improved by applying data.

3)   Create a Data Governance Strategy

Data Governance covers a whole range of topics within the overlying umbrella that is analytics. It is the rules and goals for the organization which allows identification, prioritization, application, and evaluation of the information.

The Data GovernanceBoard is responsible to define and maintain the following pillars of data management:

· Collection
· Storage
· Distribution
· Display

“People struggle with what should I look at and what do I need to do with it and why is it important? Our Data Governance defines all of those things for our hospitals so we can align system wide goals with system wide information.”

While the health system does use committees for subject matter expertise the core responsibility for data governance falls on theBoard and Director and they are accountable for compliance with the set standards.

4)   Select vendors only AFTER you have defined a process, and require compliance with your data governance.

Data and Analytics are the buzz words on every vendor’s lips. Vendors believe to sell their product they must have a “dashboard” or information display. The challenge is with multiple dashboard, and proprietary methods it is challenging to drive end user usage compliance. Saint Luke’s determined that vendors will be evaluated by their ability to conform to hospitals defined governances for data collection.

“Big Data is how you manage the data not the “what” it’s the architecture behind it.”

A common faux-paux of health systems is allowing vendors or groups within the hospital to define their own path for data evaluation. The hospital must create a single source of truth for all data, then a consistent metric for real effectiveness.

5)   Drive Compliance & Usage by creating organization goals for outcomes and operational efficiencies

The only way to drive behavior change and consistent usage is to attach economics that mean something to the individual or team.

“Our health system’s ROI is not determined by how much data is collected, or how great your dashboard is – it’s defined with what you do with the information and how you are able to impact patient care by increasing efficiency and improving outcomes.”

Through engaged leadership Saint Luke’s is working to drive meaningful change in their organization to improve patient care. Debe’s leadership has created focused culture of accountability using real data to make informed decisions. We will keep tabs on Saint Luke’s progress throughout their EMR implementation and launch of its analytic dashboards.