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.
24 HealthStream E-Book: High-Quality CPR: Breathing New Life into Your Training Program