Texas Children's Department of Surgery elevates patient experience
Texas Children’s Department of Surgery made significant strides in 2017 to enhance the experience of patients and families coming to our hospitals, specialty care clinics or outpatient facilities for surgical care.
In October 2017, the Department of Surgery started using an app called EASE (Electronic Access to Surgical Events) to give families of patients in our care real-time status reports from the operating room.
The updates come in the form of a HIPAA-compliant text message that allows doctors and nurses to securely communicate with families about their loved ones from the surgery suite. Messages disappear within 45 seconds, and nothing is saved on any device to ensure private information stays private.
“This application allows our families to leave the waiting room while their child is in surgery but still feel connected to their child’s doctors and nurses, and secure in the knowledge that a member of the OR team can contact them anytime it’s necessary,” said Texas Children’s Surgeon-in-Chief Dr. Larry Hollier. “The response from our patients since the app was introduced has been overwhelmingly positive.”
Assistant Vice President of Perioperative Services Janet Winebar said the app enhances a family’s overall experience with the hospital by creating transparency and improving the doctor-patient relationship. It also decreases anxiety, which is beneficial for everyone involved.
Another initiative the Department of Surgery, in partnership with Texas Children’s Department of Pharmacy, put into place in fiscal year 2017 was the "Meds to Beds" program. This program allows pediatric pharmacists to deliver post-surgical medications to a patient’s bedside after ambulatory surgery, as opposed to sending patient families home with prescriptions that they must immediately get filled. The pharmacist then counsels the family on the medication and answers their questions the family might have.
“While we knew this program was needed and would enhance surgical outcomes for our patients, we didn’t realize how strong the overall benefits would be,” Hollier said.
A case study of the “Meds to Beds” program at Texas Children’s Hospital was featured in May 2017 in the NEJM Catalyst, a health care management and strategy website from the New England Journal of Medicine. The study highlighted the results of the pilot program, showing positive patient satisfaction scores with 100 percent of those surveyed being "very satisfied" with medication bedside delivery and 99 percent being "very satisfied" with bedside pharmacy education. In comparison, only 20 percent of those who filled prescriptions at outside pharmacies answered "very satisfied" on the same questions.
“We are very proud of the service we are able to provide to our patients and families,” said Pharmacy Services Director Jeffrey Wagner. “Our ability to improve patient care and experience is exciting, particularly as we look to expand our services and medication delivery program to other areas of the hospital.”
Other patient experience innovations within the Department of Surgery developed in 2017 include: same-day surgery consultation appointments; standardized pre-surgery materials; the surgery greeter program; direct scheduling for Texas Children’s Pediatrics providers and Texas Children’s Emergency Center; surgical patient ingress/egress patterns; and the launch of a physician training course called Breakthrough Communications aimed at elevating conversations between patients, families and care providers.
Hollier was behind most of these patient experience initiatives and subsequently, he was honored with the 2016 Physician of the Year award at the annual Press Ganey National Client Conference. Members of his Ambulatory Surgery Patient Experience Workgroup and leaders throughout Texas Children’s nominated Hollier for the award, which recognizes physicians who have shown great dedication to enhancing patient experience management solutions.
“Dr. Hollier is very passionate about the patient experience, and he embraces all of the different touch points that comprise a patient's and family’s care experience,” said Sarah Maytum, assistant vice president of Patient and Family Services. “In leading the Ambulatory Surgery Team, he sought input from frontline staff, he listened, acted on their input and empowered staff members to take ownership of project implementation.”
To read the latest Department of Surgery Annual Report, click here.