Challenge

Finding and reaching the right care provider rapidly can be a frustrating experience for clinicians, support staff, and patients. Clinicians may call the switchboard and wait for the specialist on-call, delaying treatment for acutely ill patients. Call center staff juggle dozens of schedules and send multiple pages for every consulting physician request or after-hours call. Patients literally suffer without the right person at the right time. These scenes are repeated dozens of times a shift.

Solution

An academic medical center (AMC) adopted Diagnotes for its emergency room (ER) clinicians and staff. Using Diagnotes Rooms + Schedules, it alerts multiple teams to a single request.

If a patient exhibits signs of or is escalating towards aggressive behavior, the dispatcher can quickly broadcast into the appropriate Diagnotes Team Room of cross-departmental members: social work, bed control, chaplaincy, security, etc. Rooms also include pertinent information, including protected health information speeding the delivery of care and reducing errors.

Each department’s on-call schedule is attached to the Team Room, so only the on-call individuals from each team receive notification of an ER request. The dispatcher sends a single message to the team which can quickly, efficiently coordinate a response.

Diagnotes’ automated schedule and directory integration enable instant notification to on-call team members. Call center operators and clinicians connect in real-time, eliminating delay and uncertainty.

With Diagnotes, users can easily view schedules created in Diagnotes or integrated via a third-party app. On-call users can be contacted directly from a schedule, and colleagues may temporarily prioritize themselves for notification with on-call schedule override.

Results

Short staffed and treating victims of a mass transit accident, the AMC’s ER team handled an increased caseload almost as effectively as on a routine day. They attributed the efficiencies to Diagnotes’ schedule and directory integrations, which allowed them to quickly identify and consult with the on-call specialists. Diagnotes was able to and ease a high-stress workload for clinicians, all from the palms of their hands.