San Jacinto Methodist Standardizes Communication On PerfectServe
First Texas hospital replaces hospital communication system with PerfectServe to improve coordination of care
PerfectServe announced recently that San Jacinto Methodist Hospital (SJMH) in Baytown, Texas, has launched its intelligent clinical communications service to improve the coordination of care among nurses, physicians and hospital staff.
“Unlike many new technology implementations, the ‘switch’ from our confusing and cumbersome older methods of contacting doctors was remarkably smooth,” said Dr. Bruce Kennedy, SJMH chief medical officer. “Everyone loves the new system, especially our emergency department doctors, because it’s so much more efficient to contact an admitting physician or consultant using PerfectServe.”
Since PerfectServe was launched at SJMH, all the variables required for nurses and physicians to accurately determine which physician to reach at any given moment in time — and how to do so — are assembled and maintained within the clinical communication platform. These include all the communication and information delivery workflows, call schedules and contact preferences for every member of SJMH’s medical staff, for every moment of every day.
“PerfectServe understands the complexities of physician schedules as evidenced by the functionality of their product making it more easily accepted and adopted by physicians,” said Donna Gares, SJMH chief executive officer. “Nursing and other clinical staff have been thrilled with the service, and it is one of the best companies that I have encountered in a long time relative to their responsiveness and service orientation.”
Every SJMH physician — inside and outside the hospital — is connected to PerfectServe’s single network platform and directory. Access is provided via a single number, or via a single Web portal and mobile Android, BlackBerry and iPhone applications.
“Physicians receiving calls through the new system especially like the direct doctor-to-doctor communication because they are no longer put on hold when they call back to the ED,” said Kennedy. “It’s a ‘win-win’ for everybody.”
SJMH is now processing more than 2,750 clinical communication transactions each week, and 86 percent of those transactions go directly to the physician’s personal device (phone or pager). This suggests that the hospital has achieved a critical level of process standardization. Every transaction on the new process is documented automatically, and PerfectServe analytics give Gares and other SJMH clinical leaders the tools to continuously improve their communication processes over time.
SJMH is PerfectServe’s first deployment within The Methodist Hospital System, which is comprised of a leading academic healthcare institution in the Texas Medical Center and four community hospitals serving the greater Houston area.
About PerfectServe
Advancing care coordination across the continuum, PerfectServe's intelligent clinical communication platform makes it easy to connect clinicians — and push relevant clinical information — to the right physician at the right time, in the precise way each physician wishes to be reached. Based in Knoxville, Tenn., PerfectServe processes more than 35 million transactions annually, connecting more than 20,000 physicians in health systems and medical practices across 154 markets in the United States. For more information, visit www.perfectserve.com.
SOURCE: PerfectServe