News Releases
PerfectServe Helps Providence Hospital Enhance Nursing Workforce Transformation Initiative
January 1, 2008
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Last year, Providence Hospital launched a pilot initiative to determine the efficacy of PerfectServe, a new physician contact system. Approximately 100 medical staff members actively participated in the pilot.
Now, based on the experience of the pilot group and the recommendation of the Providence Hospital Medical Executive Committee, the rest of the medical staff will be added to the system, Michael Haynes, MD, Medical Staff Past President said.
Failsafe process means no lost consults
“We intend to improve our consult notifications to the point we are 100 percent reliable, and PerfectServe will let us measure our performance in this critical area,” Dr. Haynes said.
This is possible because PerfectServe employs a failsafe messaging process that confirms that calls and messages have been received.
Urgent consults may route to personal phone locations predefined by physicians. Consult messages that are not retrieved within a specified time trigger automatic notification escalation according to protocols established by individual physicians.
So, if a consult is not retrieved on a timely basis, PerfectServe will re-page, call or send a text message to the physician’s mobile phone, or call his or her home or office back line. Eventually, if he or she still has not responded, other physicians in the same call group can be reached.
Nursing Workforce Transformation Initiative
Besides benefiting physicians, PerfectServe also enhances the St. John Health Nursing Workforce Transformation Initiative, a full-scale effort to transform care at the bedside.
PerfectServe makes it easier for nurses to reach physicians because it takes steps, decision points and handoffs out of the communication process.
“All a nurse has to do to contact any physician is dial a single, unchanging phone number. PerfectServe will route the call to the right physician automatically,” Kathy Ryan, Chief Nursing Officer at Providence Hospital, said.
“And since PerfectServe lets nurses know whether the doctor they’re trying to reach is on-call – and, if not, the name of the doctor covering – nurses will be able to set aside their physician on-call schedules and phone lists.
“This will mean fewer repeat calls, faster physician contacts, and better patient care.”
PerfectServe ‘12,000 Hours’ initiative
“We expect PerfectServe to speed nurse-to-physician contact by some 12,000 hours annually because it removes wasted steps from the contact process” Sandy Jones said.
The 12,000-hour target is based on PerfectServe’s experience with other similar client facilities, according to the company’s CEO, Terrell Edwards.
Contact performance reports will allow Providence Hospital to measure and assess its progress toward the 12,000-hour objective weekly.
Joint Commission targets communications
“The Joint Commission has found that communication breakdown is the leading contributor to sentinel events in U.S. hospitals,” Sandy Jones, RN, Safety Officer at Providence Hospital said. “We’re simply responding to that information.
“Our success with the PerfectServe initiative will make Providence a safer, more responsive environment for our patients by making our medical staff – and our nurses – more efficient and effective.”
About PerfectServe, Inc.
The PerfectServe physician-contact network automatically routes calls and messages to the right doctor, at the right time, in the precise way each physician wishes to be reached. Communication occurs faster, with greater efficiency and safety, because PerfectServe assembles and maintains the entire communications workflow and contact preferences for every medical staff physician, for every moment of every day. The company currently serves over 12,000 physicians in 150 markets across the U.S. For more information, visit www.perfectserve.com.