Digital Commons Network^™

Family Connect: Keeping Families Informed During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Brittany Branson, Anne K. Wilkinson, Jaya Sondhi, Irma Dadic, Devin M. Giguere, Rachel Ramsey, Regina Grinblat, Katherine A. Hochman

Patient Experience Journal

Family Connect programs to enhance communication with families and care partners who were unable to visit their inpatient loved ones during the COVID-19 crisis. While they differed in composition, the Family Connect programs at both institutions leveraged providers who had decreased clinical activity during the pandemic. The Family Connect team became integrated with the team. At both institutions, Family Connect teams perform virtual chart review, discuss patient status and care plan with the primary provider and communicate with the patient’s designated family member or care partner daily. Conversations are documented in the electronic medical record (EMR), which allows for metric …

Positive Patient Experience In Eye Care During Covid-19: A Case From Eye Hospital Sistina Oftalmologija, Vesna Cado

Patient Experience Journal

COVID-19 was a wake-up call, changing the world we know and our experiences in every possible way. Healthcare systems, as the most exposed and stressed in this situation, were called to urgently respond to the new reality. Physical distancing and stay-at-home directives have flattened the curve and decreased the risk of viral transmission but also decreased the clinical volume in eye care medical practice. Hospitals must work hard to find a balance in responding to the pandemic while providing quality care and positive patient experiences. Previous research on crises has been mostly focused on implementing crisis management strategies to handle …

Maintaining A Positive Patient Experience During Covid-19 In A Rehabilitation And Complex Care Setting, Sarah Benn Orava, Kim Cook, Amanda Brown

Patient Experience Journal

West Park Healthcare Centre located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada provides specialized rehabilitative and complex care after a life‐altering illness or injury such as lung disease, amputation, stroke and traumatic musculoskeletal injuries. This narrative showcases the strategies, processes and the lessons learned and subsequently utilized throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to engage patients and their family and peers.

Experience Framework

This article is associated with the Patient, Family & Community Engagement lens of The Beryl Institute Experience Framework. (http://bit.ly/ExperienceFramework)

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Patients And Families Strengthen Covid-19 Communication Across Los Angeles County, Lindsey Galli, Libby Hoy

Patient Experience Journal

PFCCpartners supported Los Angeles County Department of Health Services to develop a Person Family Engaged Culture. When COVID-19 hit Los Angeles, system leaders understood the importance of keeping a pulse on what information people were looking for. With the continued support from PFCCpartners, a survey of community members was conducted to understand their questions during this unprecedented time. The survey highlighted barriers to accessing supplies, refilling prescriptions and using technology for virtual appointments. Utilizing the survey questions, a small group discussion was held to deepen understanding of the barriers and challenges faced during the pandemic. These two engagement activities ensured …

Out Of Sight, But Not Out Of Mind: Keeping Connections Alive During Covid-19, Katie Braun

Patient Experience Journal

The Veteran Affairs Pittsburgh Healthcare System (VAPHS) completed over 750,000 outpatient appointments during fiscal year 2019. With changes occurring around COVID-19, VAPHS saw a significant decline in veterans on campus. VAPHS employees are strongly connected to the mission of serving our nation’s hero’s, while veterans find trust, support and comradery at the VA. The VAPHS Office of Veterans Experience (OVE) realized the impact that COVID-19 isolation may have on veterans quarantined at home and seized the opportunity to continue to build relationships, develop trust and keep connected through the VAPHS Birthday Club. Over 1,300 calls have been placed to provide …

A Comprehensive Call Center Supporting Safe, Efficient Operations During A Pandemic, Janice P. Finder, Ashlyn Proske, Judy Overton, Elizabeth Comcowich Garcia, Michael Frumovitz

Patient Experience Journal

Research has shown that a comprehensive call center can support a safe, efficient, and quality experience for patients and their families. When a patient receives a cancer diagnosis, the stakes are already high. Add a pandemic to an immunocompromised patient population and fear escalates. In order to accommodate the ever-changing information and ease patients’ anxieties surrounding their cancer diagnoses, it is necessary that an institution be available 24/7 to inform, help navigate systems, and manage symptoms because the emergency room, and many times the clinics, have too many inherent risks.

MD Anderson expanded the hours of operation for askMDAnderson, a …

Teleboard: The Move To A Virtual Family Advisory Board, Sheryl Chadwick, Deejo Miller, Kathryn Taff, Amanda Montalbano

Patient Experience Journal

Restrictions on in-person meetings were going to hamper the ability for the well-established Family Advisory Board (FAB) for our pediatric hospital to continue meeting unless a virtual meeting platform was introduced. The FAB was moved to a virtual platform for the April and May 2020 meetings. Attendance rates from family members and staff were measured and compared to the previous 14 in-person meetings. Contributions during the virtual meetings from each attendee type were recorded to analyze engagement during virtual meetings. There was no statistical difference in average attendance for virtual compared to in-person meetings, 75% versus 64.3% for family members …

How University Of Chicago Medicine Designed Virtual Rounding To Maintain Human Connections During Covid-19, Susan M. Murphy

Patient Experience Journal

This story is about how the Patient Experience and Engagement Program (PEEP) team at University of Chicago Medicine adapted our patient rounding program from in-person to virtual during the COVID-19 crisis. With creativity and ingenuity, our team shifted on a dime to ensure that patients received the kind of care and connection that allowed them to start the recovery process from what could otherwise be a traumatizing experience before they even leave the hospital. I will explain the steps we took to quickly transition our rounding program from in-person to virtual. But more than that, I want to convey the …

The Rapid Increase In Telemedicine Visits During Covid-19, Chelsea Johnson, Kathryn Taff, Brian R. Lee, Amanda Montalbano

Patient Experience Journal

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, facilitated telemedicine encounters were available at outreach locations; however, our tertiary children’s hospital had not invested widely in direct to patient telemedicine. Our daily pediatric subspecialty visits dropped from an average of 2066 visits a day prior to COVID-19 in our community to 1000 patients a day during the study period. Over the four-week period from April 15 to May 12, 2020, patient and family experience ratings of percentage of positive responses (9 or 10) on the provider rating 0-10 scale between telemedicine and in-person visits were compared for our pediatric subspecialty clinics using a …

An Extensive Review Of Patient Satisfaction With Healthcare Services In Bangladesh, Abdul Kader Mohiuddin

Patient Experience Journal

Patient satisfaction is a useful measure for providing quality indicators in healthcare services. Assessing patients’ satisfaction is important since it often helps, in absence of healthcare service quality indicators, to determine the quality of health-care delivery and health system responsiveness. Higher levels of patient satisfaction indicate higher levels of patient empowerment, commitment to care and compliance to recommended management–all of which results in better health outcomes. Concern over the quality of healthcare services in Bangladesh has resulted in a loss of faith in healthcare providers, low utilization of public health facilities, and increased outflows of patients from Bangladesh to hospitals …

Patient Experience In A Pediatric Emergency Department During Covid-19, Beth L. Emerson Md, Erika Setzer

Patient Experience Journal

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed many dynamics in healthcare in the United States. This study explores an increase in patient experience (PE) scores in a pediatric emergency department. Visits were analyzed before and after March 8, 2020, corresponding with the first local case of COVID-19. Changes in the patient population and characteristics of survey responders were analyzed. Overall, the number of daily visits decreased (113 vs 36/day) and survey response rate decreased (3.7 vs 2.8%, p = 0.03), but PE scores increased (87.21 to 93.73, p = 0.002). Comparatively, an increase in patients with higher acuity levels by Emergency Severity …

Insights From Individuals With Chronic Conditions In The Context Of Covid-19, B. Stephen Burton, Jonathan Patterson, Mackenzie Robinson, Dhiren Patel, Matt Allison, Kelly J. Brassil

Patient Experience Journal

The objective of this prospective survey series was to evaluate knowledge and concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic among individuals with one or more chronic conditions, including cardiometabolic, autoimmune, respiratory and cancer diagnoses. Two surveys were distributed consisting of up to 55 items (March; n=1069) and up to 71 items (April, n=1126), with 24 items repeated from the first survey. Questions focused on healthcare access, barriers and concerns related to the COVID-19 virus. Descriptive analysis evaluated central tendencies, spread, and frequencies of the demographic data, disease states, and survey results within and between the two survey timepoints. Results from 416 …

A Covid-19 Patient’S Experience: Engagement In Disease Management, Interactions With Care Teams And Implications On Health Policies And Managerial Practices, Lihua Dishman, Vicki Schroeder

Patient Experience Journal

This narrative inquiry aimed to explore a COVID-19 patient’s lived experience from contracting the disease to recovery and understand the implications of this unique patient experience on health policies and managerial practices. The personal narrative approach was used to chronicle the patient’s weekly journey in disease management. Best practices emerged from her and her family members’ engagement in managing COVID-19, and interactions with her primary care provider and COVID-19 Response Team. Her COVID-19 patient experience also provided a basis for implications on public health and healthcare policies and managerial practices. Three key dimensions were perceived to have positively impacted the …

Focusing On Positivity During The Covid-19 Crisis: A New York Health System Strategy, Sven Gierlinger, Agnes Barden

Patient Experience Journal

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading positivity has become a core mission of Northwell Health, the largest integrated health system in New York. As a state and community health system, we are forever changed, but our need for compassion, humanism, and connection has never wavered. Creating innovative ways to bring humanity to the forefront, hope and optimism echo across the organization as initiatives, forums, and acts of gratitude have ensued.

Experience Framework

This article is associated with the Culture & Leadership lens of The Beryl Institute Experience Framework. (http://bit.ly/ExperienceFramework)

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Thoughts Of A Palliative Care Nurse In Times Of Pandemic, Angela L. Simões

Patient Experience Journal

This narrative presents a series of stories (interactions) lived by a palliative care nurse during the time of COVID-19, a time when we tirelessly prepare to help the services that need us, but we have little preparation of ourselves for the changes that we will have to face in the care of our patients and families. It shares the lived experiences, difficulties, emotions lived by me but shared by so many around the world. It also tries to show that despite the scarcity of physical presence, creativity and commitment to patients and families make us go beyond ourselves and continue …

Chronic Pain, Vulnerability And Human Spirit While Living Under The Umbrella Of Covid-19, Richard B. Hovey Dr., Delane Linkiewich Ms., Mary Brachaniec Ms.

Patient Experience Journal

The purpose of writing this article is to describe what added challenges people like us who are living with chronic pain are experiencing during the COVID-19 pandemic. We explore what this challenging time means to us and how it affects our lives, along with providing insight into our experiences. This is not a research study, but instead an article that shares perspectives from people with lived experience of chronic pain. Our narratives are presented to create an awareness of the plight for people already living with challenging health conditions and how the COVID-19 pandemic has added additional layers of vulnerability. …

Caring For Kids In The Time Of Covid-19, Laurie S. Strongin

Patient Experience Journal

The proliferation of COVID-19 has disrupted tens of millions of children’s lives. Aside from the monotony of living indoors for extended periods, being quarantined can cause feelings of helplessness, anxiety, and fear in kids and parents. These feelings are familiar to chronically ill children whose treatment often necessitates years in and out of hospitals, but COVID-19 has made life harsher for these kids. While otherwise healthy children tend to have milder symptoms than adults, the same isn’t true for kids with compromised immune systems. Keeping these children safe requires hospitals to make adjustments that exacerbate their isolation from everything they …

Treading Water: Coping With Uncertainty During A Novel Pandemic, Sachin Patel

Patient Experience Journal

The abruptness with which the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the delivery of healthcare will have a lasting effect on patients and families of intensive care unit survivors. Using the best science and epidemiology healthcare systems developed protocols and policies to implement the highest level of care but mitigate disease spread. Out of these initiatives the “no visitor” policy was born. The impact of COVID-19 causing florid respiratory failure immediately derailed the lives of a happily retired couple. While on mechanical ventilation for sixteen days, Betty was unable to connect with her husband of over 40 years. In that time, the …

Beyond Platitudes: A Nurse’S Journey Of Self-Reflection And Vulnerability, Monica Friesen

Patient Experience Journal

The efforts taking place in healthcare organizations and communities globally should represent what is best in humanity, perhaps even more so in this unprecedented time of COVID-19. This short personal narrative is the acknowledgement that “best” needs to start with “me” and my story of self-reflection and journey of vulnerability.

Experience Framework

This article is associated with the Staff & Provider Engagement lens of The Beryl Institute Experience Framework. (http://bit.ly/ExperienceFramework)

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• Access other resources related to this lens.

Is This Really Happening? Family-Centered Care During Covid-19: People Before Policy, Terri Savino, Karri Crispino

Patient Experience Journal

In the middle of a global pandemic, hospitals created policies for visitor restrictions to reduce the transmission of coronavirus to protect patients and staff and developed protocols allowing only one support person to call the critical care unit for patient updates. Late on a Tuesday afternoon, the Manager of Patient Experience received a phone call asking her to call Karri, the wife of one of our patients who was on a ventilator. Karri was struggling with updating her mother-in-law because she was very upset with the news she received, making it difficult to call her husband’s mom. Karri asked the …

Getting Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable: A Conversation With Marsha Sinanan-Vasishta, Jason A. Wolf

Patient Experience Journal

We find ourselves managing two critical moments and a powerful confluence of events, one a crisis in health. We are still facing the COVID crisis, and we are trying very hard to rely on evidence and truth that will lead us forward in addressing that in the best way possible. We are also in a crisis of humanity, one that has been simmering beneath the surface for years, the issue of systemic racism and disparities in healthcare, further highlighted by the COVID crisis. This article shares the conversation I had with Marsha Sinanan-Vasishta, MSN, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, CPXP, Deputy Chief …

Leadership Matters: A Conversation With Dr. James Hildreth, Jason A. Wolf

Patient Experience Journal

I was extremely honored at this moment in the midst of our current health crisis to have a conversation with Dr. James Hildreth, president and chief executive officer of Meharry Medical College. The focus and commitment expressed by Dr. Hildreth reflects the very mission statement of Meharry Medical College itself, to advance health equity through innovative research, transformative education, exceptional and compassionate health services and policy-influencing thought leadership. As equally important is the alignment of Meharry’s purpose with our very own at the Institute, as Meharry’s mission continues to empower diverse populations to improve the well-being of humankind. Dr. Hildreth …

A Commitment To Hope, Jason A. Wolf Phd, Geoffrey A. Silvera

Patient Experience Journal

On April 1, we made the decision to reconfigure our scheduled special issue on Behavioral Health to the topic of this issue - Sustaining a Focus on Human Experience in the Face of COVID-19. In the midst of crisis, we were uncertain how people would respond to this call or even if they could in the face of the realities they were addressing each day. Yet, the research, cases and stories started to arrive. The contributions in this special issue represent a patchwork of powerful insights and a historic record to document this moment. What we have brought together …

2020-08-04_Michigandaily_Covidmap, Michigan Department Of Health & Human Services

Daily Michigan COVID-19 Update

The "WHERE WE STAND WITH COVID-19" map was obtained from Michigan's main COVID-19 page: https://www.michigan.gov/coronavirus. Data was compiled by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). The information was updated daily at 3p.m., Monday - Saturday.

The State of Michigan is working around the clock to test and treat COVID-19 patients. Below is the most recent data healthcare experts across the state have compiled.

The image contained a map, indicating total cases by county, and also provides statistics on Total Confirmed Cases, Total COVID-19 Deaths, Daily Confirmed Cases, and Daily COVID-19 Deaths. There …

2020-08-04_Michiganoverview_Covidsymptoms, Michigan Department Of Health & Human Services

Michigan COVID-19 Syndromic Surveillance System Data

The Syndromic Surveillance System Data report was obtained from Michigan's COVID-19 dashboard, from under the link "​Coronavirus Symptoms": https://www.michigan.gov/coronavirus. Data was compiled by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). The information was updated daily.

Syndromic Surveillance System data is obtained from approximately 183 facilities participating in syndromic surveillance (132 Emergency Departments (ED), 51 Urgent Cares) across the State of Michigan. The reporting is based on individuals who present at EDs and may not be representative of the overall population. The coronavirus-like symptoms query searches visit free-text (chief complaint, triage notes, and clinical impression) for fever or …

2020-08-04_Michiganoverview_Covidlongtermcare, Michigan Department Of Health & Human Services

Michigan COVID-19 Long Term Care Data

The COVID Long Term Care Facilities page was obtained from Michigan's COVID-19 data page: https://www.michigan.gov/coronavirus/0,9753,7-406-98163_98173-526911--,00.html.

This report is created by the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services from data self-reported by long-term care facilities into EMResource. Data is updated on an ongoing basis.

The data below represents a cumulative total of confirmed COVID-19 resident cases, cumulative total of suspected and confirmed resident deaths, cumulative total of confirmed COVID-19 staff cases, and cumulative total of suspected and confirmed staff deaths reported by SNFs in Michigan since January 1, 2020. Case numbers are provisional and may change as facilities correct …

2020-08-04_Michiganoverview_Covidstats, Michigan Department Of Health & Human Services

Cumulative Michigan COVID-19 Data

The COVID Overview page was obtained from Michigan's main COVID-19 page: https:/www.michigan.gov/coronavirus/0,9753,7-406-98163-520743--,00.html.

This report is provisional and subject to change. City of Detroit and Wayne County are reported separately. MDHHS began tracking probable cases April 5, 2020. FCI indicates federal correctional institute. MDOC indicates Michigan Department of Corrections. Diagnostic tests, including nucleic acid amplification/real-time polymerase chain reaction (NAAT/RT-PCR) and rapid virus antigen detection point of care (POC) tests, look for current infection. Serology (antibody) tests are used to look for the possibility of previous infection.
Source: Michigan Disease Surveillance System (MDSS) and Vital Records

The website contained the tables …

Sun Belt Conference Announces Plan For 2020 Football Season, Georgia Southern University

Athletics: News & Publications

• Sun Belt Conference Announces Plan For 2020 Football Season

2020-08-03_Michigandaily_Covidmap, Michigan Department Of Health & Human Services

Daily Michigan COVID-19 Update

The "WHERE WE STAND WITH COVID-19" map was obtained from Michigan's main COVID-19 page: https://www.michigan.gov/coronavirus. Data was compiled by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). The information was updated daily at 3p.m., Monday - Saturday.

The State of Michigan is working around the clock to test and treat COVID-19 patients. Below is the most recent data healthcare experts across the state have compiled.

The image contained a map, indicating total cases by county, and also provides statistics on Total Confirmed Cases, Total COVID-19 Deaths, Daily Confirmed Cases, and Daily COVID-19 Deaths. There …

2020-08-03_Michiganoverview_Covidbedppe, Michigan Department Of Health & Human Services

Michigan COVID-19 Hospital Data

The webpage was obtained from Michigan's Coronavirus Cumulative Data page, under the link Data About Places. Data is self-reported by hospitals daily to the EM Resource System per MDHHS Director Robert Gordon's Emergency Order.

Contains the tables Statewide Available Bed Tracking for COVID-19, COVID-19 Metrics, Statewide Available PPE Tracking for COVID-19 (Statewide Available PPE and Bed Tracking), as well as the tables PPE Days On Hand and Patient Census.