Bill Siwicki

Within two weeks of beginning virtual care at the beginning of the pandemic, the number of telemedicine visits grew from 10 to more than 6,000, a gigantic increase of 59,900%.

Beyond the stress of increasing patient volumes and emotionally draining hospital shifts, RNs are grappling with alert and alarm fatigue, burdensome documentation, and EHR usability. But they’re finding ways to cope – and AI and automation are helping.

The Boston health system’s Digital Innovation Hub has spearheaded a new way to get all staff to contribute ideas. Many of those ideas are already in play and proving successful.

Without the new telemedicine platform, linked to its Epic EHR and language translation service, the health system would not have been able to meet patient needs.

Northwest Medical Specialties’ palliative care consults nearly doubled. Hospice referrals increased twelvefold. The integration of palliative care with advanced cancer helped the practice reach quality benchmarks.

By centralizing access to specialty care, consults and outpatient appointments, Temple University Hospital has seen an increase in appointment adherence and overall patient experience.

Almost all of the physician and nurse volunteers at Clinic of the Cascades were over 65. Here’s how the three merged technologies allowed it to stay open during COVID-19.

The hospital invested in the technology with an eye toward starting with urgent care and mammography. Suddenly, COVID-19 testing was the focus. Today, use of self-scheduling has grown beyond pre-pandemic levels.

The not-for-profit senior living and healthcare provider is preventing more falls, decreasing mortality and morbidity, increasing frequency of consultative services, and much more.

The health center invested in virtual care workstations with various scopes that allow physicians to remotely guide patients through near-complete examinations.