PDF 📄
Allina Health
Novant is Using Education and Bedside Tablets from The Wellness Network to Meet Patients’ Needs During COVID-19 Pandemic

Hospital Background

Novant Health is a four-state integrated network of physician clinics, outpatient centers and hospitals. Its network consists of more than 1,600 physicians and 29,000 employees at more than 640 locations, including 15 medical centers and hundreds of outpatient facilities and physician clinics. Novant has numerous Magnet certified hospitals within their system and are commitmented to the advancement and support of nurses. Novant partners with The Wellness Network for patient education and engagement to activate patients in their care.

Challenge

The Novant team wanted their patients to be comfortable while in the hospital and were looking for ways to better serve their patient population. Due to the COVID-19 protocols, many patients were alone in their hospital rooms without family or caregivers, and the clinical team was looking for a way to make the hospital room more inviting for their patients. They were looking for nonpharmacological pain relief intervention tools that could help ease their patients’ pain, decrease anxiety and wanted to shield the patient space from distracting ambient outside noise inside the room caused by hospital equipment like BiPap machines and alarms and outside in the hall. The team wanted a solution that would help balance the conflicting sounds into continuous flow to establish healthy rhythm and cadence, with the overall goal to improve the patient experience.

“Nature visuals, sounds and instrumental music provide a positive transition into the hospital setting to reduce stress and anxiety with a nurturing, healing environment,” states Marissa Badders, MSHI, BSN, RN, CPN, Outcomes Manager at The Wellness Network.

Approach & Solution

As a subscriber to The Wellness Network’s (TWN) patient education channels, Novant developed a solution that would meet their needs using the tools they already had as part of their contract. Since Novant was already airing TWN’s patient education channels, they worked to have all in-room hospital televisions defaulted to the MedSerenity Channel. This would ensure patients were greeted with beautiful scenery and calming images the second they turned on the television. “Nature visuals, sounds and instrumental music provide a positive transition into the hospital setting to reduce stress and anxiety with a nurturing, healing environment,” states Marissa Badders, MSHI, BSN, RN, CPN, Outcomes Manager at The Wellness Network.

The MedSerenity Channel has become a standard of care for all Novant’s critical care patients. The clinical team uses the programming on the channel to reduce the patient’s stimulation and to help produce a tranquil state of relaxation. “The imagery on the channel is nice to look at, promotes a very calming environment, and improves the patient experience,” stated Charlie Colbert, BSN, RN, CCRN at Novant Health. The Novant team has found that the calming nature of the channel has helped prevent patients from becoming agitated and fighting the ventilator. In addition, they have found that it can help to minimize medications needed for sedation and pain while the patient is on the ventilator. “MedSerenity has made a significant contribution to creating a soothing and welcoming environment for patients and visitors,” stated Christie White, Director of Patient Education and Clinical Support at Novant Health.

TWN Customer Success Novant
Novant Customer Success TWN

“MedSerenity has made a significant contribution to creating a soothing and welcoming environment for patients and visitors,” stated Christie White, Director of Patient Education and Clinical Support at Novant Health.

To further help with the teams’ goal to engage patients, Novant turned to their bedside tablets. Their team was having a difficult time communicating with COVID patients that were using BiPap machines, because the staff and patients were struggling to hear each other due to the noises from the machines and required masking of hospital staff. The Novant team was able to utilize many of the functions of the tablets, including the ability to load admission health history forms, to more easily communicate with these critical care patients.

According to Christie White, Director of Patient Education and Clinical Support, “Implementing this has been a game changer for our nurses and patients. It saves our nurses 45 minutes to 1 hour of time and gives the patients the resources they need to complete the documentation.” The MyChart Bedside application allows “patients to view in real time information on their vital signs, laboratory results, medical procedures, and medications. It also allows patients to learn about their care team, request services, and access quality educational information through The Wellness Network’s HealthClips 360 platform.”1 The MyChart Bedside tablets are not only easy to use for patients to communicate, but positively impacts the clinician workflow and improves both patient and provider satisfaction.

Tracking Outcomes

A recent Press Ganey report shows a national decline in healthcare patient’s perception of care and patient experience scores.2 “Patients who are experiencing stress, fatigue, and pain can be affected in their ability to engage in education to learn about their health conditions and medications. It can be difficult for these patients to cooperate with staff and participate in their plan of care and shared decision making,” states Badders.

The educational resources from The Wellness Network are helping to address key initiatives for Novant Health and will greatly impact their quality and compliance goals. Over the next year, the Novant team will be working to track outcomes in the following areas:

Impacts on Quality

  • Patient satisfaction; patient experience; patient engagement
  • Stress and anxiety
  • Medication
  • Pain management
  • Healing; recovery; improved clinical outcomes

Impacts on HCAHPS

  • Noise – Patients who reported that the area around their room was “Always” quiet at night
  • Pain – Patients who reported that their pain was “Always” well controlled†
  • Recommendations – Patients who reported YES, they would definitely recommend the hospital
  • Hospital Rating – Patients who gave their hospital a rating of 9 or 10 on a scale from 0 (lowest) to 10 (highest)3

Early Success

The Novant team is already seeing the fruits of these efforts. The number of patients who viewed the educational content and completed assigned video education through HealthClips 360 at Novant in Quarter 3 has more than tripled at the end of Quarter 4. The education is easily accessed through MyChart Bedside, through the EHR and is positively impacting the clinical teams work flow.

References

  1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5749597/
  2. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211104005944/en/The-Pandemic-Influenced-a-National-Decrease-in-Patients%E2%80%99-Likelihood-to-Recommend-According-to-New-Press-Ganey-Findings
  3. https://patientengagementhit.com/news/covid-19-caused-downswing-in-patient-experience-hcahps-scores
Connect with our Team to learn more about The Wellness Network’s patient education and engagement solutions.