Mercy Hospital and Trauma Center’s interactive video-based patient education at its endoscopy unit has improved patient satisfaction and staff performance.
The improvement were claimed to be immediate after the hospital started using the SmarTigr solution from TeleHealth Services, a provider of interactive patient engagement solutions.
A level II trauma facility, Mercy Hospital and Trauma Center is an American Nurses Credentialing Center Magnet Recognized hospital. The centre has also received Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.
The endoscopy unit used this video-based patient discharge education to provide higher quality discharge teaching for the 5,000 endoscopy or colonoscopy procedures performed every year.
It was first implemented in June where patients and caregivers were shown the discharge teaching video before their procedure. Then the nursing staff answers every query of the patients to ensure that the education was understood.
Within one month, staff efficiency increased by 50% (according to a clinician time study) and patient surveys also revealed substantial improvement.
The unit educator Chad Salmon said: “For clinical reasons, we kept the video discharge instructions concise and specific to our facility. We want patients to feel a sense of connection to the people on the screen and to our hospital. We believed it was possible to educate with compassion and preserve the human touch when moving our discharge teaching to video.”
The endoscopy unit issued written handouts to the patients before the implementation of SmarTigr; however, these handouts were frequently discarded, misplaced or forgotten leaving no impact.
TeleHealth Services marketing vice president Matt Barker said: “Patients value learning about their care and how to continue to heal when they get home. Increased patient satisfaction scores and dedication to making the patient an active participant in their care demonstrate that appreciation.”
Mercy Health System is now operating for more than 125 years. It has developed into an integrated health system with 70 facilities that serve the southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois.
