Sometimes, the biggest disruptors of everyday clinical workflows are the seemingly small things that balloon into big problems.
Tracking down a coworker, maybe. Missing details during a handoff. Alarm fatigue. Consider congestion in high-traffic areas such as the nurses’ station. When staff gather there for outbound calls, it can cause frustration and disrupt care delivery.
These concerns have led health systems nationwide to rethink clinical communication and collaboration (CC&C). One example is Mount Sinai South Nassau (MSSN).
MSSN is a 455-bed acute care teaching hospital in Oceanside, New York. The hospital needed a CC&C solution that could improve workflows and reduce inefficiencies. It also wanted to make better use of its existing infrastructure.
Up for the challenge, Mobile Heartbeat’s MH-CURE® checked all those boxes and then some. Here’s MSSN’s story, and what you can learn from their experience.
Identifying Challenges and Needs
The first step of any CC&C transformation is to understand systemic pain points and needs, however small they might seem. For MSSN—who had previously and unsuccessfully tried adopting another vendor first—those challenges had become abundantly clear.
With a high volume of outbound calls at the nurses’ station, MSSN aimed to reduce those and instead displace them to mobile devices. That way, traffic around the nurses’ station could disperse, while helping staff cut down on the time spent looking for colleagues.
MSSN also sought a platform that could integrate and interoperate with several coexisting systems, including Stryker®. In particular, they were attracted to Mobile Heartbeat’s willingness to work with their current infrastructure. Instead of recommending a costly and complex overhaul—something MSSN didn’t want or need—Mobile Heartbeat could build on and enhance the system’s present configurations.
“Mobile Heartbeat was able to accommodate integrations with our existing infrastructure. This allowed our users to seamlessly leverage the tools that they were already used to, which helped contribute to more excitement and adoption,” said Robert Korrow, Director of Infrastructure Services at MSSN.
A Pilot Process to Test It Out
MSSN and Mobile Heartbeat tested MH-CURE with an initial pilot across a 29-bed medical-surgical nursing unit. Petty quickly, things started to improve: Communication lines opened, clinical coordination became more efficient, and that jam at the nurses’ station? Dispersed.
With the value seen during the brief pilot, MSSN had the confidence to move forward with an enterprise-wide adoption of MH-CURE.
Takeaways for a Successful Implementation
With any enterprise change, getting buy-in from multiple stakeholders is essential. MSSN, for example, engaged clinicians and operations staff in advance—well ahead of MH-CURE’s deployment—to assess those groups’ interests, needs and preferences for a CC&C solution.
The expansive team alignment during the pilot and countdown to go-live in turn contributed to a smooth and successful implementation. After all, because MH-CURE works best at scale and with multidisciplinary adoption, having that buy-in makes all the difference for an effective technology transition and eventual uptake among users.
Mobile Heartbeat worked closely with MSSN’s internal stakeholders during go-live. Our team arrived onsite early to conduct Clinical Workflow Assessments. This discovery process included 60 groups and departments. The findings helped us understand MSSN’s workflows and support a smoother deployment.
MSSN completed its enterprise MH-CURE go-live on June 20, 2022. The full rollout took only two weeks. Since then, the health system has averaged 4,000 monthly active users and nearly one million communication events. MSSN has also reported more efficient workflows and fewer staff searches.
“We wanted a consistent communication system across our hospital and Mobile Heartbeat delivered above and beyond. After the initial implementation was complete, we saw immediate results. For example, we were able to reduce discharge times by 30 minutes, on average, for endoscopy procedures which is a huge benefit for staff satisfaction and patient care,” Matt Runyan, Chief Information Officer at MSSN, said.
Looking to address clinical workflow disruptors within your health system? Download our comprehensive CC&C implementation guide, packed with everything you need to get started.
