Bringing new technology to Houston Methodist.
Since its earliest days, Houston Methodist has been a health care innovator. Key to our mantle of “leading medicine” is a continuous effort to improve patient care and the clinician experience. Each of our approximately 28,000 employees are charged with striving for improvement and excellence, consistently asking, “How can we do things better?”
With the recent groundbreaking on our newest 400-bed facility in Cypress, earmarked as the “smart hospital of the future,” we’re constantly looking forward and considering new technologies that contribute to providing an exceptional patient experience.
“This new facility represents a major growth opportunity for Houston Methodist,” said Trent Fulin, Houston Methodist Cypress chief executive officer. “Not only are we expanding the system’s footprint in our community, but we’re also growing our knowledge and use of technology, for the benefit of our patients, providers and staff. Cypress can be the digital foundation for technologies we deliver across our organization in the future.”
Adding more convenience to the patient experience.
Most patients encounter our process before they experience our people when seeking care from HM. Appointment scheduling, clinic check-in or hospital admissions — often complex, time-consuming and repetitive processes — are prime opportunities to apply digital technologies, so it’s easier for our patients.
“The patient experience doesn’t start and stop at the exam table,” said Roberta Schwartz, HMH executive vice president and chief innovation officer. “It encompasses every channel and every opportunity we have to interact with our patients and the community. Through technology they’re already comfortable using, we can help patients receive the attention and care they need. And as the technology evolves, we must be prepared to do the same.”
We already have technology in place to help our patients with support issues, like resetting a MyChart account password. This voice- or text-based software, called chatbots, emulates human behaviors and can walk patients through sometimes difficult processes.
Soon, those chatbots may also help patients download the MyChart app, access clinical notes or images or simply talk with a live person. Similar chatbots can be used to help patients with scheduling or cancelling appointments, instead of contacting a clinic or call center. And before patients arrive at our facilities, chatbots may help them complete and electronically sign any pre-appointment forms, so they can see health care providers quicker.
Empowering patients to be their own advocates.
Patients today are more actively engaged in their care than ever before. Last year, a new feature was added to MyChart that helps patients view additional information from their charts and be better advocates for their own care. Now, patients can view clinical notes summarizing details from their visits. These notes may include observations, test and lab results, medications and/or suspected or confirmed diagnoses.
Programs, like Clinical Pathways, standardize care practices and help to manage some patient communication and education automatically, based on patients’ conditions and levels of recovery. This program has already helped thousands of our patients navigate difficult health conditions, like transplants, cardiac bypass surgeries or cancer. With appropriately timed text messages and phone calls, patients receive educational materials and can complete clinical questionnaires that help their care teams monitor home recovery.
Many patients already use small, wearable devices, like pedometers or Apple® iWatches, that continuously monitor physical activity and certain vitals, like heart rate, blood sugar and even EKGs. These tools are helping clinicians collect more patient data to better detect issues, even while patients are home. Soon, those biosensors may also be able to detect issues with movement and balance, tremors, cognitive behaviors or even strokes.
These tools that continually collect patient data can help paint a complete picture of each patient’s story and can reduce the need for additional clinic visits and follow up.
“The goal is to meet patients where they are, at different stages in their care and recovery,” said Courtenay Bruce, JD, MA, HM director of system patient experience. “We want to be there for them before, during and after care to address any health-related questions or concerns. That’s what it means to care for the complete patient, not just their immediate physical needs.”
Using ambient listening for greater clinician efficiency.
With ambient listening devices, like Alexa and Siri, already common in many homes, we’ve already started introducing voice-enabled technology in our facilities. Methodist Intelligent Automation, or MIA, is already used in some operating rooms and several primary and specialty care clinics. And soon, MIA may play an even greater role systemwide. Clinicians in patient rooms may be able to speak certain commands and the system will respond — like displaying a patient’s MRI or sending a prescription to a pharmacy.
Voice-enabled technologies can free up our providers and nurses to better engage with their patients, instead of spending time facing a computer to enter notes. In clinics, similar technology may someday be able to listen to a patient and doctor and transcribe notes directly into Epic. Soon, patients in our hospitals might use voice commands to send messages to nurses’ Vocera badges with requests for things like a blanket, pain medication or help with personal care.
“Our providers want to listen to and engage with their patients more, rather than spend part of their mental capacity thinking about how they’ll document the patient interaction,” said Dr. Jordan Dale, HM chief medical information officer. “With ambient listening, our technology is listening, along with the patient and provider, so we can reduce the documentation burden on the provider. Most importantly, the provider is able to focus on connecting with the patient more. We’re not focusing on documenting diagnoses or treatments. We’re focusing 100 percent on what each patient is telling us. That’s the big advantage ambient listening technology gives us.”
To know our patients is to care for them.
Looking toward the future, new technologies will continue to improve our focus and understanding of our patients and their needs.
“Innovation is in our DNA and has been since we opened our first hospital in 1919,” says President and Chief Executive Officer Marc Boom, M.D. “This focus on innovation has led us to where we are today, developing new technologies as we build our smart hospital of the future. This focus on innovation begins with an obsessive attention to the needs of our patients while also striving to enhance the experience for our physicians, nurses and staff.”