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1 min read

How One Group is Trying to Shift the Digital Health Focus Away From Dollars and on to Patients

By James Woodson, MD on Mar 14, 2018

$23.8 billion has flowed into the digital health industry over the last 7 years.

But more often than not, tech startups focus more on dollars than on people impacted by their services. That's why -- according to a feature recently published in Fierce Healthcare, Rock Health has launched The Impact Project. The initiative aims to bring to light the stories of real people who have been touched by healthcare technology. 

Topics: Communication
1 min read

Inconsistencies in Processes of Care Result in Variable Survival Rates for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest. 

By James Woodson, MD on Mar 09, 2018

Recently, the AHA released recommendations that cardiac resuscitation systems of care be put in place and should involve "interconnected community, emergency medical services, and hospital efforts to measure and improve the process of care and outcome for patients with cardiac arrest."

Topics: Stroke STEMI Communication
1 min read

The Enormous Cost of Adverse Patient Safety Events [2022 Forecast]

By James Woodson, MD on Mar 06, 2018

According to a recent study, adverse patient safety events across healthcare segments resulted in a cost burden of an estimated $317.93 BILLION on the US and European healthcare systems in 2016.  

This cost is estimated to increase at a CAGR of 3.2% and reach $383.7 BILLION in 2022.

Topics: Communication
1 min read

Healthcare Systems Concepts -- What is a System? Part 1 [Vlog]

By Mic Gunderson on Feb 20, 2018

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following blog post was written by guest author Mic Gunderson, President of the Center for Systems Improvement. Mic has been involved in emergency healthcare for over 40 years in leadership, managerial, and clinical positions including prior service as National Director for Clinical Systems for the American Heart Association. 

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High performing systems of care for high-risk time-sensitive conditions like cardiac arrest, major trauma, STEMI, stroke, and sepsis are critical to achieving excellent patient outcomes. To make significant improvements in these systems of care, we need to understand how systems work in general so that we can look beyond the individual hospitals and EMS agencies that make up the ‘parts’ in these systems of care.

Topics: Stroke STEMI Healthcare Communication
1 min read

The Plight of the Modern Medical Student: Navigating Ancient Hospital Technologies

By James Woodson, MD on Feb 13, 2018

3rd year Medical Student clinical orientation:

"Here is your pager and instructional YouTube video on how to use a fax machine.  If you need a refresher on how to find a patient's ECG on a blast email without the patient's name being on any of the ECGs or emails, please talk to IT.

Topics: Communication
2 min read

How to Make Healthcare Communication as Simple as Coordinating Dinner

By Brittany Means, RN, BSN on Feb 08, 2018

In my life, for all of the important things -- weddings, holiday events, dinners, etc. -- the first thing that my loved ones and I do is create a dedicated channel for that event, in the form of a group text.
 
We then build the necessary team by adding everyone involved in planning to that channel.
 
Then, we communicate. All in one place, all on the same page, all getting the same information as soon as it's available. 
 
Why do we make these group text channels?
Topics: Healthcare Communication

Our Most Common Question, Answered in a 5 Second Blog Post. 

By Shane Elmore, RN on Feb 06, 2018

Hands down the most popular question we are asked by prospective clients is the following:

Topics: Communication
1 min read

Healthcare Silos are Costing our Patients

By James Woodson, MD on Jan 30, 2018

SILOS are one of the biggest problems facing healthcare.

The patient's journey crosses multiple healthcare entities and/or departments in a hospital.  This has massive implications on real time team communication.  However, equally important is how many hospitals and regions approach addressing communication problems from a budgetary or evaluation standpoint.

Topics: Healthcare Communication
1 min read

Effective Communication In EMS

By James Woodson, MD & E. Stein Bronsky, MD on Jan 25, 2018

EDITOR'S NOTE: Earlier this month, Pulsara's Founder and CEO, James Woodson, M.D., co-authored the following piece with Stein Bronsky, M.D. This piece originally appeared in JEMS. Download the full article here. 

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Medical errors, or preventable adverse events, are estimated to cause somewhere between 250,000 and 400,000 deaths in the United States every year.1

Experts say the most common causes of medical errors are communication problems and inadequate information flow.2

Topics: EMS Communication
1 min read

Here's What the Future of Healthcare Communication Looks Like

By James Woodson, MD on Jan 17, 2018

Does this look familiar?

Medical error is the third leading cause of death and contributes to 10,000 serious medical complications every day.  80% of these errors occur secondary to miscommunication during transitions of care.

Topics: Healthcare Communication
4 min read

A Look at Pulsara's Top Content of 2017, as Decided by You!

By Team Pulsara on Jan 02, 2018

Hello and Happy New Year from Team Pulsara! 

Today we wanted to take a moment to reflect back on some of our best pieces of original content from the past year. You've spoken, and below are your top 5 favorite pieces: 

Topics: Communication
2 min read

Here's Why Some Teams Struggle with Coordination -- Which Can Lead to Delays in Treatment

By Shane Elmore, RN on Dec 15, 2017

Recently I was approached by a nurse who is the Director of the Operating Room at her hospital. She began to list the problems her team has with communication when they are called out for emergencies. She shared how they are struggling to get the right team to the right place in the right amount of time.

In a meeting recently, she was venting her frustrations, and a VP with Cardiac Services explained how they had struggled with problems like these for years, but since they purchased Pulsara, those issues are a thing of the past. She heard that the Stroke Team was using us too and they reported the same results.

Based off of those testimonials, this nurse reached out and asked if we could build another package specifically for her team to use. In business, there are many metrics for evaluating success, but you know you're doing something right when your current customer base is finding new problems for you to solve based off of other problems you've solved for them!

I knew this problem was dire for STEMI and stroke teams, but I was a bit surprised to learn this is a common problem with after hours Operating Room teams in the emergency setting. What is the issue? Why is it so hard to get the team called in for an emergent appendectomy, for example?

Topics: Communication
2 min read

Research: Can Pulsara Facilitate Communication for Multi-Organizational and Multi-Disciplinary Clinicians?

By Hannah Ostrem on Dec 13, 2017

When someone suffers a stroke or heart attack, getting the patient to definitive treatment quickly is crucial to their survival and quality of life post-event. But, getting treatment quickly requires communication between EMS, several care teams within the hospital, and sometimes even teams from other hospitals when transfer is required. 

Too often, this communication breaks down at one or many points along the way due to the outdated and non-integrated technology systems those clinicians rely on to relay their information. This antiquated technology, including phone trees, fax machines, pages, sticky notes ... (yes, really), causes critical patient information to be missed, which can contribute to treatment delays and medical errors.

To ameliorate these frustrations, researchers in Australia have conducted a preliminary study with the following aims:

"To describe:

1) If a technology-based communication solution could be implemented across multiple organizations;

and

2) Which factors are associated with clinicians’ intentions to use the technology."

Topics: Stroke STEMI Communication Australia
3 min read

Australian Health Systems Reduce D2B and D2N Times by 28 and 33 Minutes Respectively [Preliminary Research]

By Hannah Ostrem on Dec 07, 2017

To determine if Pulsara can improve management timelines for patients suspected of having a stroke or cardiac event, researchers  in Australia have conducted a pilot study with a 6 month pre-post historical control design. 

The researchers give the following background to the study:

  • "Rapid treatment of patients with suspected acute stroke or cardiac events involves pre-hospital (paramedics) and hospital clinicians from multiple departments including: emergency, medical, neurology or cardiology, radiology or catheterisation."
  • "Clinicians repeat patient details using multiple communication methods (phone, fax, pager, face-to-face) and record details in various systems."
  • "Inefficient communication may contribute to treatment delays for these time-critical conditions."

To see if Pulsara could help stop the inefficient communication the teams were experiencing -- and thereby reduce associated treatment delays -- the researchers had prehospital clinicians as well as hospital users activate Pulsara for suspected stroke and STEMI cases.

Topics: Stroke STEMI Communication Australia
1 min read

Live at Texas EMS: Paramedics Discuss their Biggest Communication Challenges [Podcast]

By Shane Elmore, RN on Nov 30, 2017

Every year, breast cancer claims 40,000 lives. The opioid epidemic causes 50,000 deaths per year. Motor vehicle crashes cause 38,000 deaths each year. And gun violence is responsible for 36,000 fatalities annually.

Topics: Communication
1 min read

Happy Thanksgiving and THANK YOU from Team Pulsara

By Team Pulsara on Nov 23, 2017

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

This year, the team at Pulsara feels more thankful than ever. As the holidays approach, it's natural to look back over the past year and think about where we've come and how we've grown together. 

Topics: Communication
1 min read

What if we Measured Treatment Delays in Number of Brain Cells Lost? Thoughts from a Stroke Coordinator [Podcast]

By Shane Elmore, RN on Nov 15, 2017

What if instead of recording treatment delays in minutes, your stroke coordinator recorded them in number of brain cells lost?

Would your team still say "Oh well, it's only five minutes, that's not too bad" if the metric referred to were "Only 10 million brain cells?"

Topics: Stroke Communication
1 min read

What Your Region Can do to Address the Miscommunication Crisis in Healthcare [Resources]

By Hannah Ostrem on Nov 07, 2017

For years now, Pulsara has been building and rebuilding, making advances, and then making them better. All in efforts to put an end to the miscommunication crisis in healthcare. 

We have a platform that WORKS. A platform that provides real-time TEAM communication which crosses ALL healthcare entities -- after all, if you're only solving the problem on the prehospital side, or the in-hospital side, or the hospital-to-hospital end, you're only solving ONE PART of the problem ... which really isn't solving the problem at all. 

All of the work we've done encompassing the problem and refining the solution have paid off. Patients in 18 states and Australia now benefit from their care teams providing faster, better care due to the instantaneous, streamlined communication systems they've adopted, which includes Pulsara. Below, check out our research, case studies, posters, press releases, and videos to learn what YOUR region can do to stop the miscommunication crisis.

Topics: Healthcare Communication
2 min read

Transparency Saves Lives. Here's Proof.

By James Woodson, MD on Oct 31, 2017

A recent article published on USA Today's website interviewed the CEO of Leapfrog Group, which assigns grades to hospitals based on "medical errors, infections and injuries, patient responses to surveys, [and] data provided to CMS, the American Hospital Association, and voluntarily to Leapfrog." 

Perhaps the most striking point the article made was one that we've been trying to bring to light since Pulsara was founded. In fact, it's the reason WHY Pulsara was founded: "[These] problems are 'all too common,' with more than 500 people a day dying from preventable errors in hospitals."

Topics: Healthcare Communication
3 min read

Accountability Isn't Optional When it Comes to People's Lives.

By Shane Elmore, RN on Sep 27, 2017

If you missed my previous blog post about my recent hospitalization, then I encourage you to go back and give it a read. This post serves as part two of  my up-close-and-personal experience with communication failures in the hospital. Luckily, the situations described in these two posts don’t involve time-sensitive emergencies (TSEs). When communication failures occur in TSEs, the impact can be devastating. Rather, these examples provide evidence that miscommunication is part of the everyday routine in healthcare. This communication crisis is real, and it impacts real people every day.

In case you missed my previous post, let me recap: I was out of town on a business trip and ended up being hospitalized for a day. Luckily, it was just one day; every additional day a patient stays in the hospital, the odds of a full and speedy recovery decrease. But the experience that would follow was so bad, I was half surprised a lady with crazy hair didn't walk up to me on admission and say "may the odds be forever in your favor!" (That's funny if you've seen the Hunger Games. If not, you seriously need to go to the movies now and then ... but hey, no judgment).

Topics: Leadership Healthcare Communication