eSTAT - A Software Solution for the medical community

8/14/2019 eSTAT - A Software Solution for the medical community

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When Saving Time-

Saves Lives

How North York General Hospital designed an

Electronic Skillset Tracking & Assessment Toolset

(eSTAT) to streamline a critical area of their

Emergency Pandemic Response Process


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Table of Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Embracing the Extraordinary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Putting Time on Your Side . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Designing a Treatment Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Prepared to Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10


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Introduction

The diverse challenges today's healthcare facilities face seem to

grow on a daily basis. Consequently, the need for healthcare

providers to explore and create new and effective solutions to

these challenges is not only necessary, but also critical to ensuring

that the communities and people they serve receive the most

timely and expert care possible.

One of the ways our healthcare community can meet these evolving needs is through the design of cost

effective software information management solutions that can be seamlessly integrated into their existing

network. These programs present the opportunity for each healthcare facility to target and create very

specific solutions to meet the very unique operational needs of each healthcare facility.

With the outbreaks of the H1N1 flu reaching a pandemic level (according to the World Health Organization),

combined with the recent experience that the SARS virus presented, there is no time when having efficient

information management solutions already in place is more vital to healthcare organizations than it is now.

Just as each pandemic event presents divergent variables and challenges in different locations, the emergency

pandemic response process must also vary from one healthcare facility to another. What remains a common

factor within these situations is the need for practical solutions that enhance and further enable healthcare

workers to respond quickly and efficiently to meet their patients needs.

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Embracing the Extraordinary

In the world of those exceptional people who choose to be

caregivers, there are those who accept the duty to care as a

part of their job - and those who embrace it. At North York

General Hospital their personnels main care giving mandate

couldnt be more accurately reflected than in their facility maxim

of Embracing Health. It is what transforms a duty to a passion

and that translates into one of the most important elements

found in outstanding care giving - compassion.

North York General Hospital (NYGH), which includes the IODE Childrens Centre, has been a local healthcare

leader and family partner to the community of north central Toronto and southern York Region since 1968.

Employing a model of care driven by the unique needs of their community and region, NYGH is home to

one of the largest and strongest networks of family physicians in Canada with patients ranging from newborns

to seniors. In addition to being a community teaching hospital, NYGH offers a broad range of interdependent

diagnostic and clinical health care services and is committed to providing progressive care that serves the

whole person through all stages of life.

NYGHs four primary clinical areas of focus include Regional Maternal Newborn and Pediatric Care, Cancer

Care, Family and Community Medicine, and Care of the Elderly, all of which are supported by the hospitals

ten core programs (Emergency Services, Family & Community Medicine, Cancer Care, Child and Teen,

Genetics, Elder Care, Maternal Newborn, Medicine, Mental Health and Surgery). Additionally, NYGH is

affiliated with the University of Toronto and is a partner with Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in thePeters-Boyd Academy. Over the course of the past 41 years, NYGH's community teaching hospital has

solidified its reputation as the training institution of choice for many resident physicians.

NYGH's commitment to patient safety has never been more evident than over the past few years than when

faced with the challenges both the SARS and the H1N1 flu virus pandemics presented. Consequently, this

experience has resulted in NYGH becoming a recognized industry leader in infection prevention and control.

As NYGH began reviewing their existing data gathering and distribution system to see if they could further

enhance their emergency pandemic response process, they sought not only a partner who possessed an

exceptional level of medical industry and technical expertise, but one who also possessed a demonstrated

commitment to performance excellence that matched their own.

NYGH found the perfect partner with Clarity.ca (Clarity). Claritys extraordinary industry, technical and client

service expertise provided NYGH with exactly the right balance of knowledge and experience they were

seeking for this important patient care driven project.

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Putting Time on Your Side

When confronting an emergency situation like a pandemic, by

necessity, everything and everyone in a healthcare facility becomes

a potential asset that can be used to help care for and reduce the

suffering of patients. This fact makes it very important to take a

step back during the planning process and remember to take

advantage of every asset you have available, not only including,

but especially the intangible ones - like time.

NYGH did just that when they conducted an in-depth review of their existing emergency pandemic response

process. There was no detail in their response plan that did not warrant a second look and that resulted in

identifying the need to fine-tune their initial response protocols. Careful review of these protocols indicated

that there had to be an even better and faster way to access key personnel in their facility that are the most

qualified in the specific areas of expertise needed to meet the needs of incoming patients affected by the

pandemic than they already had.

Partnering with Clarity was the key to discovering how to make their great response system - an outstanding one.

Claritys team of experts began with a detailed analysis process of every facet of NYGH's electronic workflow

and information gathering and distribution system. This analysis process helped clarify and clearly define the

specific areas of NYGHs initial response protocols that could be improved without disruption to their existing

network or programs/applications already in place. This evaluation process led to the design and implemen-

tation of a new program toolset entitled eSTAT (Electronic Skillset Tracking & Assessment Toolset).

eSTAT is a multi-faceted toolset

designed to both record and report

the most up-to-date information on

the different skills and qualifications

of a healthcare facility's personnel.

Having this data available at the

touch of a button is critical to being

able to immediately identify and put

key personnel in place quickly to

prepare the healthcare facility for

and manage an emergencypandemic event.

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Designing a Treatment Plan

As any healthcare professional will tell you, a truly effective

treatment plan can only be made after an exhaustive and

thorough examination has been conducted. This fact is also true

when analyzing information management and workflow

process systems. Following the front-end analysis process, Clarity

was able to make specific recommendations to NYGH that led to

the development of the eSTAT program application. This new

toolset is comprised of a series of individual components

designed to work together harmoniously to complement and

support NYGHs overall emergency pandemic response process.

The foundation of eSTATs information gathering and processing rests with Claritys proprietary learning

management system entitled LiMe. LiMe provides the infrastructure and interface needed to enable non-

technical users the ability to easily create, manage, track, deliver and assess the broad range of data that

NYGH has to administer. LiMe also enables the export of the data reports to common formats for further

manipulation in other systems that the client is currently using/familiar with.

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Key Information Acquisition

One of the most important program features of

eSTAT is the ability to help NYGHs leadership teamidentify exactly who can do what immediately in

response to an emergency pandemic situation.

Clarity met this requirement by designing a series of

questionnaires for the staff with a customized role

identification workflow feature. Role identification

clarifies what specific area of expertise the user has

(i.e., Respiratory Therapist, Registered Nurse, Social

Worker, etc.) with the workflow feature then

automatically displaying a questionnaire tailored

to the indicated specialized area of expertise.

The information and results input by the users are

then stored using an Active Directory login authentication

(matching up registered users with NYGHs user

database for cross-referencing when required) and

the user is able to update their own data at any given

time. Once the core skill assessment information is

entered, NYGH has a detailed and up-to-date online

skill inventory available to resource quickly and easily

in times of need. This online skill inventory can be

managed and viewed in a number of ways, generating

only the data that is relevant and useful to NYGHs

leadership team at any given time.

Since LiMe is a learning management system, Clarity

was able to seamlessly link the eSTAT application

with NYGHs online and classroom training program

records. This provides NYGHs management team

with current information of employees that are in the

process of upgrading their existing skillsets/certification

through online or classroom training programs, as

well as verifying course/program completion details.

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Obviously, a vital factor to the success of this program is ensuring that all of the skillset information is kept

current. To facilitate this requirement, Clarity created a mass email feature that sends an automated message

after a predetermined time period chosen by NYGH's leadership team (i.e., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 months, etc.) to

personnel who have not updated their skills within that time period. As the user updates their data, eSTATis designed so that old data is automatically overwritten to ensure only the most current information is

displayed/stored. Clarity also designed a mass email option that can send a 'reminder to update your skills

message to all staff members, rather than targeting only the individuals whose skills data have not been

updated during the specified notification time period.

Turning Data into Resources

Claritys extensive experience in the successful creation and implementation of customized information

management programs for the medical community has always led them to one undeniable conclusion

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facts and data have no real value to healthcare facilities unless they have a tangible, practical use.This tenet is most apparent in the development and design phase of the reporting and information

distribution program components.

For Clarity, there couldn't be a more worthy cause than to ensure that all facets of the reporting and

information distribution processes were highly intuitive, flexible and accurate in order to meet NYGHs

ultimate goal to serve the unique medical needs of their patients and families in an emergency pandemic

situation quickly and precisely to achieve the best possible recovery outcome.

Consequently, Clarity created dynamic reporting to enable NYGHs administrative team to easily access and

analyze the available data based on a variety of predetermined/approved criteria, as well as providing them

with the ability to export it all to their reporting program of choice (Excel). Every aspect of this program

component was designed to facilitate the leadership team's ability to make the meaningful decisions they

had to in a challenging situation on a timely basis.

Complementing the dynamic reporting component, NYGH also had Clarity design a gap analysis tool to

monitor and track the overall effectiveness and results achieved by the incorporation of new eSTAT program

component within their facility's emergency pandemic response process. This feature provides a foundation

for NYGH to measure the success the new program as well as acting as a tool to flag potentially useful

criteria not currently included in the program that can be duly added in the future.

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Prepared to Care

Developing this new toolset came from NYGHs dedication to enhance their existing emergency response

process in a way that does and will continue to be able to meet the challenges that any emergency

preparedness situation may present. With over 3,300 facility employees, they recognized the need to create

an application that could collect and assess specific skillset information of all of their staff in a permanent,

dynamic and easy-to-access manner. While the current flu pandemic certainly emphasized this need,

NYGHs facility care giving mandate has always reflected their commitment to providing the very best in

healthcare services to their patients under any circumstances.

Leading NYGHs impressive team of experts as Project Manager was Jamie Campbell (Director, Organizational

Development) with Mr. Kevork Guerguerian (Coordinator; Training, Organizational Development) providing

key input into the project-planning phase. Mohini Pershad (Professional Practice Leader; Nursing, Professional

Practice) provided invaluable advice on the survey design and questionnaire creation and in the analysis and

development of the workflow and process, with Gerry Dimnik (Director, Information Services) offering his

expertise in the areas of both contract development and technical specifications. Further complementing

NYGHs diverse team of experts, were Martin Chevrier (Application Consultant, Information Services)

and Steve Bernard (Program Analyst) who partnered with Claritys technical team to meet AD integration

needs and ensure all IT and system requirements were met to enable a smooth transition to a live format.

Tying everything together was Ms. Cecilia Benasa (Administrative Assistant, Organizational Development)

who not only acted as the project coordinator but also helped perform critical initial program tests.

NYGHs and Claritys team of experts successfully designed the eSTAT program to provide NYGH with the

long-term ability to develop skillset profiles of their highly trained staff to promptly meet the specific

requirements of any emergency care response event or situation. NYGHs past experience with Clarity and

the successful installation and use of their proprietary LMS program (LiMe), assured them that this unique

project would prove to be just as responsive, concise and effective both technically and practically.

NYGH once again wasnt disappointed as Clarity met every technical, client service, budgeting and timeline

project goal they had to facilitate a successful outcome. The user feedback to the NYGH leadership team has

been consistently peppered with the words easy, quick and relevant, which could be no higher compliment

since that is exactly what eSTAT is designed to provide to their facility. Being prepared truly takes on new

meaning when you are responsible for preparing to care for the well being of the many patients and families

that NYGH serves every day.

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Our experience in implementing LiMe with Claritygave us the confidence that they would be responsive,

had a system that could do the work and would

be an excellent partner in the development of thisnew toolset.

Jamie Campbell, B.Ed, BA (Hon.), M.EdDirector, Organizational DevelopmentNorth York General Hospital


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Conclusion

As a community teaching hospital in a continuum of health care

providing compassionate and quality care to diverse communities

in North Toronto and beyond, NYGH offers their culturally diverse

community a wide range of acute care, ambulatory and long-term

care services across three sites. NYGHs model of care is driven by

the unique needs of their community and their region with an

organizational value system designed around four key values:

Listeningto appreciate diversity, Learningthrough dialogue and

reflection, Leadingwith courage, transparency and forgiveness

and Servingpatients, families and others with kindness.

Committed to embracing new ideas and teaching methods, NYGH is continuously developing and adapting

best practice clinical methods and advancements in care. Additionally, as a Regional Childrens Health Centre

and member of the Child Health Network for the Greater Toronto Area, they also work with other regional

centres and The Hospital for Sick Children to provide coordinated care to children and offer one of the

widest and most comprehensive ranges of services for children and adolescents in the Toronto region.

NYGH is fully committed to living their corporate vision of Community of Success: Serving with Kindness.

Clarity appreciates the opportunity to partner with an organization like North York General Hospital that is

so unwavering in its dedication to excellence in patient care. Whether its providing expert consulting, application

development, application integration, creative design, employee training and/or intranet development services

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our impressive team of experienced multi-disciplined professionals enables us to ensure that our clients arepresented with only the most effective and cost efficient solutions available to support and achieve their

unique organizational and customer service goals.

To explore what innovative solutions Clarity can provide your organization with or to request more information,

please call: (403) 705-5900 or select www.clarity.ca. To learn more about North York General Hospital,

please select www.nygh.on.ca

Working with Clarity can be summed up in one word: Responsive! We were ableto easily get in contact with their team, changes were made in a timely fashion and

Clarity always sought to add functionality that we hadnt considered. While a

seemingly straight forward project, the need to create a variety of surveys and have

them integrated added a level of complexity and Claritys team of experts were very

helpful in working with us to create the best work flow possible.

Jamie Campbell, B.Ed, BA (Hon.), M.EdDirector, Organizational DevelopmentNorth York General Hospital

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eSTAT - A Software Solution for the medical community