MedStar Washington Hospital Center’s ERAdvisor
Though the waiting room wasn’t overly crowded when I first arrived at about 11 p.m., there was a steady stream of people flowing back and forth through the doors to the treatment area. I could already sense that my visit would stretch into the early hours of Monday. Luckily, I had friends with me, but I didn’t want to burden them with staying too late.
When I first registered in a tablet device at the front desk, I was given the option of using my phone number for the hospital’s ERAdvisor, an ED journey tracking service that didn’t require a separate app to download but could be accessed securely through a web browser. With ERAdvisor, I could track my progress through the ED, view the results of tests and scans, receive estimated wait times from triage to discharge and even share my visit with my loved ones.
This was the first time I’d ever seen a service like this offered in an ED. Normally, without such an app, I’m sure I would’ve been bothering a nurse or other hospital staff members about what was next: When am I getting a CT scan? When will a doctor see me? When can I go home? But I didn’t have to ask that question even once because I could see it all in my ERAdvisor. Its user-friendly interface reminded me of the airline apps I’ve often used for traveling, offering relevant information that helped me better understand what was needed for my care.
Healthcare organizations that can streamline clinical and operational processes can not only improve staffing workflows but also patient satisfaction. As CDW healthcare strategists Mike Larsen and Jamie Lynn Ray write, “Ultimately, these efforts decrease manual processes, increase communication and coordination among care teams and enable organizations to deliver higher-quality care more efficiently. They can make a significant difference in alleviating clinician burnout and creating a better experience for patients.”
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So, how did MedStar Washington Hospital Center get the idea to transform their ED operations and offer ERAdvisor to patients? Dr. Jennifer Thompson is an emergency physician and program lead for ERAdvisor at the hospital. She says that the solution came after years of trying other methods to improve communication, from physical pamphlets to an FAQ website.
“We see a high amount of ambulance traffic, we have a lot of highly complex workflows, and our team just really wants to care for patients. We learned that our team members were frequently being stopped to answer the same types of questions, so we thought there had to be a better way to make those answers more easily available to patients,” Thompson says.
A multidisciplinary ED experience committee, which includes nursing leadership and representatives from the office of patient experience, helped to develop and improve ERAdvisor not only for patients but also for the team members, she adds.
“People are on their phones in the ER. It’s an effective way to reach them, to provide some of those answers to commonly asked questions,” Thompson says. “It was a department-level initiative where our committee was brainstorming how can we best improve this aspect of care. Then we researched the options and brought it up to leadership.”
These kinds of initiatives are all part of MedStar Health’s ongoing digital transformation, improving access to patient care while also streamlining workflows for team members.
“If you’re a patient at our hospitals, we want to get you in the right place for the right care. We’re focusing on transforming ourselves, and we want to take advantage of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence and other things, to make the care better,” says MedStar Health Senior Vice President and CIO Scott MacLean.
