My resolution for 2015 is to work with our caregivers and new Chief Information Officer Tim Tarnowski to develop a plan to get us off of Soarian Clinicals, our inpatient electronic health record (EHR).

To help make sure I keep my resolution this year, I have asked Bill Corbett, MD, senior vice president of our Community Medical Group and Matthias Walz, MD, associate chief medical officer  of the Medical Center,  to co-chair a 26-member Soarian Exit Strategy Task Force that has been charged with developing a plan to move us  off Soarian and onto a system that is more dependable, user friendly, and better integrates all the information our caregivers need to provide the highest quality care possible to our patients.

The task force has already started meeting and I am excited by what I have seen from the team so far.  The team will operate within the parameters of several guiding principles. Chief among these is that our software platforms must offer the best solution for our patients and caregivers. In keeping with our Everyone, Everyday mantra, caregivers’ will have an opportunity to demo the new systems being considered and offer feedback via an electronic survey over the next several months. I encourage everyone to participate. Your opinion matters. The task force will make recommendations to the UMass Memorial board in March.

Our Idea of the Week is also about IT and comes from Julie Villemaire, RN, and the rest of the team on 7 East at the Medical Center. Nurses coming on shift were having difficulty finding workstation on wheels (WOWs) because there was no central drop off point and some were being used by nurses staying late to complete their documentation from the previous shifts.  Julie suggested creating a WOWs drop off station, and having the outgoing nurses’ drop off WOWs 10 minutes before the beginning of the shift and safety huddles.  If an outgoing nurse still had documentation to complete after their shift ended, they are asked to use a desktop so the oncoming nurse can have the mobile unit.  This idea has allowed for smooth and timely transitions of nursing staff between shifts and eliminates both the waste associated with searching for WOWs, and any delay in service to our patients.

Well done!

Thanks for all your great ideas and for taking great care of our patients and one another,

Eric