October 13, 2016

The Scoop

Autumn Anniversary

This week marks not only a change in our bimonthly newsletter format but also my 27-year anniversary with The Center for Health Design.  27 years ago and just 10 days before the 6.9 magnitude earthquake that would mark my “welcome” to being a San Francisco Bay Area resident, I started my journey with The Center.

My plan was to stay for eight-weeks. I was going to help produce our annual conference, and then go find a job as the design professional to match the degree I had just earned. That short stint lead to an almost three-decade career that has taken me places far beyond any expectations I had for my career when I graduated from college. 

I’m very proud of The Center and the impact our work has had on healthcare environments around the world. But I’m even more proud of the community we have built, the lifelong friendships I have made and the people who have volunteered and worked for The Center over all these years. Their energies and efforts have moved mountains.

Be well,

Debra Levin, EDAC
President and CEO

Uber's Pilot Program Brings the Ease of Modern Transportation to Health Care

Uber has already partnered with systems such as Medstar Health to get patients to their appointments, but the transportation giant’s newest pilot program has shown promises of making an even bigger splash.

The program involves a patient-centered portal that’s integrated with patient health records, allowing hospital transport coordinators to schedule and manage on-demand rides from one centralized location. Mercy Health System’s three acute care hospitals and their PACE, all-inclusive care program for the elderly in Pennsylvania are part of the initial pilot program. And the Philadelphia-area system already sees this as an opportunity to provide more individualized care, while driving down costs.

Everything is HIPAA-compliant and patients don’t need a new app or device with the option to receive ride update alerts through email, phone or text. Transport coordinators can arrange for individualized rides through one dashboard, instead of having to use many different methods and trying to keep track of taxi vouchers. 
Hospitals & Health Networks, more...

12 Statistics on Construction & Design: Patient Experience is Paramount

The 2016 Hospital Construction Survey revealed the impact of consumerism on healthcare facilities. Health Facilities Management and the American Society for Health Engineering of the American Hospital Association conducted the survey of 3,125 hospital and health system executives.

Here are 12 survey highlights:

1. Upwards of 86 percent of respondents denoted patient satisfaction as "very important" when considering design changes to health facilities and services.

2. More than 50 percent of respondents reported implementing noise-reduction construction material to boost patient experience.

3. Hospital executives are also influenced by the patient demand for privacy and comfort, with 66 percent of respondents noting conversion of semiprivate rooms to private rooms.

4. Forty-nine percent of respondents said they are expanding patient room square footage. This trend may flip, however, as more facilities are reconsidering smaller patient rooms.

5. About 75 percent of respondents noted the inclusion of wifi access in their facilities. Becker's Hospital Review, more...

The $54 Million Hospital Without Any Beds

Mercy Hospital wants to provide better care for its patients -- by making sure they don't come to the hospital.

Instead, 330 staffers at Mercy's Virtual Care Center, located just outside of St. Louis, place video calls to patients using highly sensitive two-way cameras -- and monitor their vital signs in real time through tools like pulse oximeters that plug into an iPad.

The goal: Avoid expense and hassle on both sides by providing care when and where the patient needs it, preventing some of the hospital re-admissions that add $41.3 billion to hospital costs annually, according to a government study.

Under new federal guidelines, hospitals are partly responsible for keeping costs down. So they're turning to video chats, email and other online communications to keep patients out of the ER whenever possible.

"The sickest 5% of patients are typically responsible for about half of the health care spent and many end up, unnecessarily, back in the hospital," Gavin Helton, the medical director of Mercy Virtual Care, told CNNMoney. "We need an answer for those patients."

Mercy says the Virtual Care Center, launched in October 2015, is the first of its kind: a $54 million, four-story "hospital without beds" that houses zero patients. It's home to a variety of "telemedicine" programs that allow Mercy to care for patients remotely round-the-clock. CNN Money, more... 

Safety Program Cuts Slips, Falls and Legal Fees at Hospital Campus

When the number of slips, trips and falls reached an untenable level in the common areas of St. Joseph’s Hospital campus, Tampa, Fla., leadership decided it was time to take action.

After gaining support from top leaders and hospital staff and initiating several safety measures, St. Joseph’s succeeded in reducing the number of incidents by 16 percent in 2015 compared with that of the previous year.

St. Joseph’s three-hospital campus also reduced the cost of litigation related to claims from slips, trips and falls from a high of $700,000 in 2013 to $5,000 only one year later as safety actions took hold.
Health Facilities Management, more...

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