Helping Nurses to Find the Right Provider

In my rounding through the University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center (UM BWMC), I sometimes hear nurses express frustration, asking aloud, “Which physician is actually taking care of this patient?” From my experience, this is a time-old question, one that is asked many times a day at every hospital across the nation. No hospital is exempt from it.

The Problem: Transient Relationships

What appears to be a simple question, is actually quite challenging in part because nothing is stationary in medicine. Providers consistently have changes in shift coverage, with multiple hand-offs between levels of care or consulting services. Things change quickly, sometimes faster than people can update systems.

A good example is lab results: Labs and tests may be ordered by one provider, who then ends their shift prior to the results being available. That initial provider, however, is listed in the chart, but they are no longer the current provider caring for the patient. So, when the lab results come in, they don’t know where to be sent. 

These transient relationships for patient ownership create extensive, tangible safety and efficiency challenges with regard to the delivery of care, all of which YOU (nursing) has been calling attention to.

It is safe to say that we all agree, there should always be a provider assigned to an in-hospital patient 24/7/365 who will always take ownership of any relevant requests regarding a patient under their care.

A Solution: Automated Roles and Messaging

To help address this concern from our nursing team, the University of Maryland Medical System and UM BWMC are investing in a new platform aimed at helping care team members better understand who the current provider is for each patient.

The platform uses existing roles built into other secure messaging systems to reduce the burden on care teams to maintain accurate assignments. This enables team members to reach the correct provider on their first attempt. As a safety measure, the platform also incorporates a layer of redundancy that escalates and forwards messages to senior team members in the event a provider is unable to respond.

For the receiving provider, the platform will also automatically populate important information from the patient’s chart into the secure message. Frequently-used messages and patient-specific information will also be built into the platform to efficiently and securely send messages from nursing teams to providers. 

Our teams are currently being trained on this new platform, with roll-out beginning in early March. Making this provider notification seamless is just the first step in tackling this issue. Our future plans also look to incorporate a patient’s critical values, and ensure they are reported directly to providers.

I’m excited for this new platform and eager to evaluate its ability to help us improve on this important communication area.

If you’ve had success implementing a similar platform, or have found other solutions that tackle this issue, I’d love to hear it. Comment below and let’s keep the conversation going.

Sincerely,

David G. Hunt, MSN, MBA, RN, NEA-BC

Senior Vice President & Chief Nursing Officer

UM Baltimore Washington Medical Center

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