PHYSICIAN OFFICE STAFF AS CUSTOMERS
One clear example of recognizing the need to maintain a customer-first mindset was the plan put in place to reach out to staff at doctors ’ offices . Implementing the program in physician practices required a distinctly different approach in the deployment of the HeartCode curriculum . The business reality is that physician offices are reluctant to close the practice for part of a day to enable staff to complete education requirements .
In assessing the reality of how best to deliver education to a physician office staff , several important factors came into play :
• Taking physician office staff offsite for education requires costly time and travel .
• Appointment times for patient care are interrupted and need to be rescheduled .
• Revenue for the practice is adversely impacted .
• Valuable time is lost coordinating logistics of offsite training events .
To account for these concerns , a number of program design changes were made , including :
• Educators make appointments at the clinics and bring Voice-Assisted Manikins ( VAMs ) onsite .
• Skill checks are staged in a dedicated room in the practice .
• Staff completes training at self-selected times , within the flow of their daily schedule .
• There is always an instructor present to assist , if needed .
“ Physicians love this approach for many reasons , especially when it relates to the most efficient use of their time .
And , staff loves it . No classroom !”
Holly Pugh , Director , Clinical Simulations Center , Bon Secours
NEXT STEPS IN DELIVERY IN THE ACUTE SETTING
With the overwhelming success of HeartCode , planning for expansion is not only exciting , but it ’ s a necessity . One area of future focus is the expansion of the program into the Med / Surg floors of the hospitals . Although codes occur less often on Med / Surg floors , staff still need to know what to do in a code situation . Enhanced HeartCode training will concentrate on the first few minutes spent with the patient before the code team arrives .
In the case of physician offices , this simulation training will prepare clinic staff for what actions to take before the EMS arrives . In addition , higher level mock code training will be carried out with code teams , critical care staff and teleunit teams .
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