North Sunflower nurses learn to think outside the box

North Sunflower nurses learn to think outside the box

Written by  Anne Preus

  Brenda Deaton and Mary Helen Wasson incorporate creative thinking strategies in the Leadership Training for Nurses on Friday. The day’s activities encouraged participants to think outside the box as North Sunflower Medical Center’s nurse management staff completed this professional development component.

Read more

Mississippi Scales Up Its Telehealth Network

A two-year-old diabetes program launched by the University of Mississippi Medical Center is expanding to other states and populations.

By on

The success of Mississippi’s telehealth-based diabetes program is prompting its parent health system to expand to other states – and other chronic disease groups.

The Diabetes Telehealth Network, a statewide remote care management program launched in 2014 by the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s Center for Telehealth, saved roughly $400,000, reduced A1C levels by 1.7 percent and saw no ER visits or hospitalizations among the 100 residents involved in the initial six-month pilot.

The program is now being expanded throughout the Southeast and will target COPD, heart failure, hypertension, and asthma as well as diabetes. In addition, UMMC has signed a five-year extension with Intel-GE Care Innovations, its partner in the Diabetes Telehealth Network, to help facilitate the expansion.

UMMC officials said they started with a known need – some 13 percent of Mississippi’s adults are living with diabetes and many face barriers to accessing quality care in a state that’s one of the poorest and most rural in the nation. They set realistic goals and produced measurable results, and now want to connect with 1,000 patients a month throughout the region by the end of the year.

“Half the state of Mississippi suffers from two or more chronic conditions, and we see so many of these patients come through our facilities on a daily basis,” Kevin Cook, CEO of UMMC’s University Hospitals and Health System, said in a November 2015 press release.. “We knew we needed to find a way to help these folks take control of their own health. By extending this program, we expect to save $189 million in Medicaid each year just with the diabetic population.”

“After seeing the success derived through our diabetes program with Care Innovations and the improvement in the quality of life it provided for those enrolled, we are ready to extend the benefits to other chronically ill populations and healthcare organizations who share our vision of a healthcare system that extends into the home,” he added.

To scale up the program, UMMC officials said they’re investing in new technology and hiring more staff, and will even add a new facility.

“We are offering this service not only to patients in Mississippi but outside of the state as well. We want the success of this program to impact as many lives as possible,” says Michael Adcock, FACHE, the administrator of UMMC’s Center for Telehealth. “To prepare for this, we have acquired new technology and employed additional staff to address our current needs and anticipated expansion. We are also planning for a new building to accommodate the growing needs for telehealth.”

The program is a feather in the cap for Intel-GE Care Innovations, a collaboration launched in 2011 to support the movement toward remote care management. Sean Slovenski, the company’s outgoing CEO, sees UMMC as a model for other providers around the country.

“You have to get one thing right before you go on, and with (UMMC) this is what we hoped would be the result,” he said. “The whole diabetes space is littered with apps and platforms that have come and gone, so it was a matter of finding something that worked, and then building on that success. Once you have that focus, you can add slices to the pie.”

Adcock said the remote monitoring platform includes a tablet assigned to the patient, enabling him or her to connect with and upload data from a variety of home-based devices, and equipped with a video conferencing link to care managers at UMMC. Center for Telehealth staff collect data from the patient every day and use that information to create a personalized care plan.

The Diabetes Telehealth Network – dubbed the first of its kind in the nation – also caught the attention of Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, who checked out the program at North Sunflower Medical Center late last year. The program’s success, he said, has helped the state in seeking federal support to extend broadband services to some of the state’s more remote communities.’

“This innovative partnership has gained the attention of the Federal Communications Commission as we are connecting patients in the rural town of Ruleville to a care management program they otherwise would not have access to in their town,” he told the Mississippi Business Journal last month.

Randy Swanson, Intel-GE Care Innovations’ new CEO, says the project hasn’t been without challenges. A care platform has to be versatile enough to adapt to each health system, he says, primarily because so many hospitals either don’t have the technology or are operating on legacy systems that can’t fully support the move to remote care.

Today’s technology platforms, he says, should be 10 percent standardized and 90 percent customized. Sadly, that isn’t the case with many EMR platforms.

“The EMR isn’t going to be the right place to load all that information,” he says.

http://mhealthintelligence.com/news/mississippi-scales-up-its-telehealth-network

Wellness Scanning Solution for Employees to Show at SHRM

 

DALLAS, June 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — FreshLoc Technologies wholly owned subsidiary, Wello Inc., will demonstrate a marvel and wellness innovation, the welloStation™ at the Society for Human Resources Management Association Annual Conference and Expo, 2015, in Las Vegas, June 28-July 1. Wello Inc. has developed a non-contact, non-medical intervention that makes wellness visible. Wello takes ‘focus on your strengths’ to a new level, and that level is ‘focus on your wellness…’

By identifying well employees, sick workers are deterred and absenteeism falls rapidly. Wello will bring welloStations and hand-outs to SHRM with information about wellness in hospitals, clinics, seniors’ residences, rehabilitation centers, dentists, schools, prisons and various kinds of employers.

An example of welloStation’s success can be seen in the video of a study of a client North Sunflower Medical Center:

Video: http://youtu.be/ALuqY0ZaHgs

Distributor: Medical Grade Innovations

Wello Inc.’s booth at SHRM is located in the wellness section. This form of social responsibility has immediate ROI, saving lives, money and even improving your community’s wellness. Detection is deterrence and what CEO Rik Heller refers to as Wello’s desire to “make wellness epidemic.”

According to CEO Rik Heller, epidemics are spread by a very few number of the sickened people called superspreaders. Superspreaders merely are those that present themselves in public, fevered and thereby contagious. No fever, no contagiousness. By deterring this practice, influenza epidemics nearly pass over the places where Wello is used. “Wello Inc. is excited to present welloStation at SHRM, 2015,” says Heller.

About Wello Inc.
The welloStation provides organizations with a quick, automated, no-touch body temperature screening tool for employees, visitors, suppliers and all others who enter their facility. welloStation is a fun, fast, futuristic Measurement data is stored in the HIPAA compliant welloCloud® storage system for compliance and reporting purposes. Stop contagions from entering your facility with fever screening of all individuals entering your facility. Consistent and continuous screening from welloStation™ will lower HAI (Healthcare Associated Infections), stop employee absenteeism at your company and keep the community healthier. welloStation™ keeps productivity high and workers working well.

Wello Inc. is committed to the care and safety of employees and patients. wello® is a subsidiary of FreshLoc Technologies®, pioneer in patient care and safety through temperature monitoring systems. Visit welloinc.com.

Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150610/222159LOGO

SOURCE Wello Inc.

Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation and the Internet Hearing

Federal Information & News Dispatch, Inc.

Chairman Thune, Chairman Wicker, Ranking Members Nelson and Schatz and fellow panelists, it is a pleasure to appear before this subcommittee to discuss how we can work together to advance telehealth through connectivity. I thank the Subcommittee, and especially my Senator, Chairman Wicker, for the opportunity to testify and look forward to a robust discussion.

Read more

Medical Grade Innovations Helps North Sunflower Medical Center Reduce Infection Spread with the welloStation

Medical Grade Innovations Announces Partnership with North Sunflower Medical Center

Ridgeland, MS (PRWEB) April 20, 2015

Medical Grade Innovations (MGI) today announced it has partnered with North Sunflower Medical Center in Ruleville, Miss., to help reduce the potential for the spread of infection by installing four welloStations™ throughout its facilities. The welloStation provides a quick, automated, no-touch body temperature screening for employees, patients, suppliers and others as they enter an environment. The welloStation is just one of several products and procedural applications offered by MGI to curb the spread infection.

Read more
1 10 11 12 13