{"id":40402,"date":"2023-09-26T23:15:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-27T03:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/answerstat.com\/?p=40402"},"modified":"2024-03-16T10:17:19","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T14:17:19","slug":"code-call-system-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/answerstat.com\/article\/code-call-system-benefits\/","title":{"rendered":"Case Study | Providence Swedish"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Improving On-Call Communication Delays and Code Call Workflows with Web-Based Platforms<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Nicole Limpert<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swedish Health Services was founded as Swedish Hospital in 1910 by an immigrant from Sweden named Dr. Nils August Johanson. Over the years, the campus expanded and merged with other health systems to become Swedish Health Services. It is the largest nonprofit health provider in the Seattle metropolitan area, with five hospital campuses, two ambulatory care centers, and a network of more than one hundred primary-care and specialty clinics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swedish Health Services merged with Providence Health & Service, one of the largest health systems in the country, in 2022 after working together for ten years to provide comprehensive care across Western Washington state. The Sisters of Providence founded Providence Health & Services in 1859 as a nonprofit Catholic healthcare system. The health system expanded to include more than fifty hospitals, eight hundred-plus non-acute care facilities, and many assisted living facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their newly branded organization, Providence Swedish, provides an array of care throughout the Puget Sound region. Their system of eight hospitals and 244 clinics employs more than 2,200 providers and 22,000 caregivers. Providence Swedish delivers the most comprehensive healthcare service in Western Washington, providing care for 1.2 million unique patients annually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Identifying Healthcare Communication Inefficiencies<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Providence Swedish is committed to protecting its patients and has a rigorous quality and patient safety program. Staff submits a \u201cQuality Variance\u201d to their supervisors if an unexpected incident or event occurs that is inconsistent with the organization\u2019s standards. This process results in service reports internally known as eQVR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This dedication resulted in the First Hill and Cherry Hill campuses earning the highest hospital safety grade of A in 2022 from the Leapfrog Group in their biannual Leapfrog Patient Safety Survey. These campuses were recognized for success in protecting patients from harm and error.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research indicates that poor communication among healthcare professionals is a leading cause of patient harm. In one study that examined healthcare communication flows, Improving Patient Safety Through Provider Communication Strategy Enhancements<\/em><\/a>, researchers cited that time spent searching for and contacting appropriate providers (a.k.a. \u201cproblematic time\u201d) was a crucial communication issue. \u201cAs data collection progressed, it became apparent that \u2018communication events\u2019 were complex and included time spent \u2018hunting and gathering\u2019 for the correct information related to whom to call, how to best contact them, and what to do when the primary person was not available. On average, \u2018problematic time\u2019 consisted of 10 to 40 percent of total communication time . . .\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study\u2019s results found that taking action to enhance teamwork and communication is crucial in preventing unfavorable patient outcomes. Taking action is exactly how leaders from Providence Swedish responded when they identified a communication weakness in their on-call system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supervisors at Providence Swedish noticed an uptick in eQVRs related to nighttime on-call providers failing to return calls or pages about patients. The eQVRs were escalated up the chain of command. It was discovered that communication breakdowns and delays were happening due to how updated on-call schedules were handled by the on-call system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had situations where a provider may have a last-minute schedule change, an after-hours availability update, or needed to change their preferred method of being contacted,\u201d said Brenda Frieboes, on-call manager for Providence Swedish. \u201cThe previous process for communicating those changes was for the providers to contact the call center and inform an operator. However, the only thing a hospital operator could do at the time was to take a message and put it in their \u2018notes of the day\u2019 system. There wasn\u2019t a way for a general announcement to go out. That meant a nurse on the floor wouldn\u2019t know about a schedule change unless they happen to contact the call center looking for help because they couldn\u2019t reach a provider.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Improving On-Call Communication and Response<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Elizabeth Wako, MD, chief executive for Swedish Seattle, initiated the process of searching for a new on-call scheduling platform. She tapped the call center manager at Providence Swedish to find an advanced on-call scheduling system that could handle the roughly two hundred schedules that needed to be managed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brenda explained, \u201cWe had our on-call schedules in several different scheduling platforms from three vendors. The web program we used hosted every link for every schedule, both for the landing page and for the schedules themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team needed an accurate on-call scheduling solution that made it easy to create, view, and update schedule coverage with the ability to easily dispatch messages to on-call contacts using their preferred method of communication. Brenda said, \u201cWe literally called around to different hospitals to see what system they used, and we became aware of the vendor we chose.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new on-call scheduling solution offered many benefits, including several that addressed the needs of the team, such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n