One of the benefits of partnering with hospitals to improve the ways they engage frontline healthcare workers is conducting periodic reviews. 

Apart from providing the chance to analyse performance, these reviews allow us to identify opportunities to improve engagement and the app itself, based on analysis of data and a framework we’ve developed called the MedApps Gold Star Hospital Program. 

Not only do we consider how Med App can be optimised at the level of the primary account holder (in this case, the hospital), we also consider what can be improved from the perspective of a user’s experience, that is, a healthcare worker on the floor.

In this latest article highlighting our case studies, we share how one hospital is performing, to understand the difference digital technology like Med App can make to the experience of frontline healthcare workers and the people they care for day to day.

What’s the MedApps Gold Star Hospital Program?

MedApps Gold Star Hospital Program is the framework we designed to identify opportunities for improving how the app is used so organizational engagement is maximised and Med App is delivering as much value as possible. 

Review findings are generated via in depth qualitative analysis and peer comparisons from mobile and dashboard usage level. We assess all content areas and feature engagement within the particular health service. 

Based on feedback and data from organisations with the most significant Med App engagement, we map alignment to the AMC Junior Doctor Training Standards and undertake a gap analysis of the organisation’s Med App against our Gold Star Checklist.

The purpose of any recommendations arising from the report is to guide the future direction of how content can be enhanced and the app’s features optimised specifically for that organization.

Importantly, recommendations take feedback from users into account as well, making the process a two way communication exercise that allows us to fulfil our mission to support safe, efficient, and effective clinical care.

MedApps Gold Star Hospital Program: how one hospital is performing 

Greenslopes Private Hospital (GPH), located in Brisbane, is Australia’s largest private teaching hospital. It is a 601-bed, tertiary level facility operated by Ramsay Health Care.

Med App was first used in September 2018 by the hospital’s emergency department (ED) and most recently, use has expanded to include all doctors in training (DiTs). 

The decision to use Med App at GPH was based on a number of compelling arguments. First, there was an identified need to provide a more robust infrastructure to onboard and engage clinicians effectively. Before Med App, traditional methods of hospital communication and information dissemination were limited to post, email, pagers, posters, and opportunistic meeting announcements.  

Hospital management acknowledged information flow could be better and were highly motivated to deliver practical operational and wellbeing information to DiTs and other clinical staff too. Similarly, GPH identified that while organisational training and support for wellbeing initiatives was in place, these could be improved. 

The integration of Med App to help address these issues has led to pleasing outcomes, with the December 2020 quarterly report indicating GPH is performing at a level that is four times the Med App average.

It begs the question, why has GPH been so successful? Let’s look at what’s going on.

Why is Greenslopes Private Hospital so successful?

Here’s what our analysis tells us about the success of Med App at GPH:

Governance structure 

There is a high level of engagement and operational oversight provided by the Junior Doctor Workforce Manager, Medical Education Coordinator, as well as Junior and Senior Clinicians. What this means is that all the right people from the hospital are involved in ensuring the frontline clinicians have the right information to succeed. 

Content

In an information-rich resource like Med App, the currency, conciseness, clarity, and relevance of resources like hospital and unit orientation documents, live rosters, ROVERs (rolling term handover documents), after hours resources, education timetables, and wellbeing resources is pivotal, because therein lies much of the technology’s value to users. 

What is significant at GPH is that live rosters, term orientation and handover resources are the highest used resources, which is a sign that the information is relevant, concise, and up to date.  

Engagement

Engagement is an area where all hospitals look to make improvements. The latest quarterly report indicates GPH is making inroads in this area too, as there are encouraging signs clinicians are engaged to assist with maintenance of resources by using the feedback and edit functions. While in the past, the process may have been slow or stalled through back and forth email chains, clinicians have been using the feedback and edit functions to flag out of date resources, or even edit directly into the app. At GPH, Med App is being used by DiTs of all levels, including interns, residents, registrars, as well as VMOs in the Emergency Dept. This is an indicator that neither seniority or technical fluency is a limiting factor for use.  

Communication

One the main reasons for Med App’s practical appeal is its ease of use and immediacy of getting information out. It simplifies and strengthens communication channels, while making essential content more accessible to those who need it, when they need it. For example, every DiT at GPH received an email and text message invitation to Med App prior to orientation and commencing in their new role. 

Another important factor is the hospital’s leadership promotes Med App as the primary source of information and top down communication is conveyed via regular push notifications and announcements multiple times/week. The ability to personalise messaging and communicate directly with clinicians has proven invaluable, particularly as the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have been felt by those working at the frontline.

MedApp’s Gold Star Program supports quality improvement

A first pass of GPH’s performance against the Gold Star framework earlier this year identified there were still opportunities for improvement on the table. 

While the hospital was a top performer (its average number of sessions per user was 40.76 for the quarter) and far surpassed the average across other sites (10.5), GPH hadn’t yet engaged with our newest education/CPD feature. This meant they could achieve even more alignment with the AMC intern training accreditation standards and support clinical training events.

Successful use of the education event invitation and attendance tracking features in Med App has allowed the medical education unit to increase clinician engagement. With Med App, it is simpler and easier for clinicians to scan into an education session and keep a personal CPD log of attendance in their app. At the same time, reporting for hospital administration is streamlined. Greenslopes now meets 86 percent of the AMC intern training standards supported by Med App. 

From our analysis, it is clear GPH is a Gold Star Hospital. A combination of the existing strong governance framework, clinical engagement and input, together with dashboard administrator engagement has been critical to success. 

Feedback from the hospital’s Medical Education Coordinator, Thomas Coe, has been encouraging:

“Med App has been very easy to use for hospital wide communication. I’ve been able to add new users and get them connected to our resources/information within minutes.

It is quick and efficient. I particularly like the ability to create user groups to manage information and events.

The QR codes are excellent to log attendance and eliminate time wasting with paper rolls. Collecting data for the purposes of accreditation is highly important and the app does this with ease.

Customer support is excellent.”

The team at Med App is looking forward to continuing its support of GPH and its people, as it supports them to be more capable, confident, and effective in their work.

Med App is an offline-accessible, mobile-first tool for easily accessing clinical and hospital guidelines, communicating with clinicians, and facilitating education and training. Already supporting over 20,000+ users worldwide, its usefulness to doctors at all levels is evident from the success enjoyed by Greenslopes Private Hospital. For more information about the Med App Gold Star Hospital Program contact Sonia Chanchlani via email at [email protected] or uncover the possibilities when you book a complimentary Med App demonstration for your team.