Henry County Health Center Wins Gold Intranet Innovation Award for HospitalPortal.net IntranetIntranet cuts paper waste and uses tablets to help clinicians and EVS team care for patients
“The portal is such a huge benefit to the organization and to our patients,” said Stacy Speidel, Henry County Health Center’s Systems Administrator. “I knew it was worthy of recognition.” The Intranet Innovation Award is a global competition for the most successful uses of intranet portals by Step Two Designs, an intranet strategy firm in Australia. Henry County Health Center won a gold level award in the Business and Frontline category. Other US winners in this year's Awards were Mayo Clinic Department of Nursing, Virgin America, and Disney. This is the hospital’s second award for its intranet. In 2011, Henry County Health Center won the national Gold level Web Health Award from the Health Information Resource Center. Before introducing an intranet the hospital was managing policies and internal communications on paper. For example, when it was time to update the on-call schedule for frontline associates, someone had to type the document, print copies and hand it out around the hospital. If something changed, the document would have to be re-typed, reprinted and redistributed. They were also printing their internal newsletter and human resources benefits information for associates. “The annual election of benefits enrollment packets alone were about 10,000 sheets of paper,” Speidel said. Leaving the Paper Push Behind Their first intranet platform, implemented in 2003, allowed them to host documents electronically. Policies were managed electronically as well, but Speidel still had to manually update the documents online. When someone reviewed a policy she had to enter the new review and revision dates. If a policy changed, a colleague in HR would retype the document, and Speidel would have to get it onto the portal, creating new links each time. “It was quite a job,” Speidel said, laughing. A Google search led her to HospitalPortal.net. The company, based in Rolling Meadows Illinois, builds self-service, intranet software systems specifically for healthcare organizations. “We could see that it was cost-effective and easy to use,” Speidel recalled. “It was flexible enough that it would grow as we were evolving.” That was back in 2006. Since then, their HospitalPortal.net intranet has grown into the primary internal communications tool for Henry County Health Center’s 300 associates. When associates need letter head or fax cover sheets they can simply download them, instead of having to type and print them. When HR has an update or when the administrators want to share the hospital’s strategic plan, they can funnel announcements through the intranet. The intranet also hosts training videos, presentations from the CEO’s associate forums and the monthly associate newsletter from HR. And, of course, the cafeteria menu is a hit. Intranet Innovation on the Frontline One of their most innovative uses for the intranet has helped environmental services (EVS) associates cover all bases for cleaning patient rooms. The Census Board does a lot more than the name implies; it automatically updates housekeeping status, articulates isolation details, and streamlines the midnight census verification process. Before their HospitalPortal.net intranet, environmental services team members would have to chase down a busy nurse on the patient floors and manually make a list of how many patients were there, which patients rooms needed to be cleaned and which patients had which contagious illnesses. “Different medical conditions require different cleaning procedures. If a patient had MRSA and we didn’t clean the room properly, that could spread to the next patient,” said Rebecca Van Deuren-Sample, Environmental Services Supervisor. “There was a lot of work just to start work.” In 2011, Henry County Health Center partnered with the HospitalPortal.net intranet and later launched the Census Board. EVS team members can log in on a mobile tablet and see all of the information they used to collect by hand. Nurses can also electronically send requests to have a patient’s room cleaned. The hospital’s 18 EVS associates can also access schedules, meeting minutes and training presentations online. “The intranet empowers them to find information more quickly on their own,” Van Deuren-Sample said. Most importantly, it allows the EVS team to keep close tabs on following proper cleaning procedures for patient rooms, reducing the risk of hospital acquired infection. Van Deuren-Sample can run reports of who cleaned which room and when. Now, EVS staff that work in other departments are asking, ‘When are we going to get our Census Board?’” Van Deuren-Sample said. The Intranet Innovation Award judges were excited about it too. “The judges were really impressed with the way the intranet has been used to directly help core hospital processes at very little cost. They also liked the use of tablets,” according to the award letter sent to Speidel. “Henry County Health Center is committed to delivering the highest quality healthcare by combining personalized care with the latest in medical and health information technology. We implement strategies that increase value to patients by enhancing quality of service while reducing waste and cost. Our intranet plays a vital role in helping us achieve this goal,” commented HCHC CEO Robb Gardner. “Every HCHC associate has responsibility for achieving customer satisfaction, and we utilize healthcare information technology like our intranet and specifically the Census Board, to improve efficiencies and processes within the organization. The end result is to provide our communities with excellent healthcare that they expect and deserve. This award is a testament to how community health centers like HCHC can be innovative and utilize technology to optimize the healthcare and safety of patients.” Photos: https://www.prlog.org/ https://www.prlog.org/ https://www.prlog.org/ End
Page Updated Last on: Sep 06, 2013
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