Improving Workflow Efficiency for University of Maryland Medical System

Minimizing the time it takes to communicate effectively in treating traumatic injuries can determine the patient’s quality of care. The R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center excels at this and has dramatically improved workflow efficiency. Tiffany Kuebler, PA-C, MMS, became the trauma center’s first physician assistant in 2007. She currently staffs one of three trauma teams specializing in the care of trauma patients and is the medical director of Clinical Informatics at the University of Maryland Medical System.

“We have a 96% save rate. A lot of trauma centers around the country mimic our system because of our commitment to getting the right patient to the right place within the right amount of time.”

Tiffany Kuebler, PA-C, MMS

In a recent episode of The Connected Care Team podcast, Tiffany discusses the benefits of adopting a modern clinical communication solution to improve workflow efficiency and patient outcomes.

The Connected Care Team Podcast Time is Tissue: Streamlining Clinical Communication at UMMS Listen to the Episode

Switching From a Paging System to a Secure Messaging Solution 

The University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) struggled with the limitations of using a paging system. This approach lacks the ability to confirm the required person(s) received the critical page, and it is not optimized to use an on-call scheduling solution to verify the correct person is being paged. Reducing the amount of time to find the correct staff member(s) while also helping them be better prepared to respond to the issue were key drivers for UMMS.

Transitioning to the TigerConnect Clinical Collaboration Platform, Tiffany found an efficient two-way communication solution that confidentially connects the correct providers for the correct need and the correct time. Providers can now send contextual messages with detailed clinical information, enabling them to address the most urgent patient requests first. UMMS has also taken advantage of the ability to create workflow-specific message threads with multiple providers simultaneously. By utilizing the on-call schedule built into the platform, these conversation threads ensure the correct person is in the conversation, therefore, reducing the time required to track down the right person.

UMMS has seen the most significant benefit with its Code Blue notification process. In switching to a streamlined solution from TigerConnect, overhead pages and alerts that don’t provide the full context of a patient’s status have become obsolete. Alerting, mobilizing, and communicating with rapid response teams is now done with automated, contextual messages. According to Tiffany, the new process has saved 2 minutes and 25 seconds on Code Blue response times and helped to combat alert fatigue among her staff.

“Two and a half minutes is an eternity when someone is in cardiac arrest.” 

Tiffany Kuebler, PA-C, MMS

Implementing a Healthcare Solution That Makes Care Delivery Easier 

Old habits die hard, but Tiffany received positive feedback from UMMS clinicians who experienced the increased efficiency TigerConnect provided. In fact, the entire nursing staff began using TigerConnect to more effectivity communicate among their teams ahead of the proposed rollout schedule. This outcome not only speaks to the power of the TigerConnect application but also how easy the adoption of this two-way communication strategy was by the UMMS staff once they recognized its benefits and value. Tiffany expressed that she now gets routine requests for the organization to add more functionality.

If you want to learn more about the University of Maryland Medical System’s journey from the old way of clinical communication to the new, listen to host Will O’Connor’s engaging and insightful podcast episode with Tiffany Kuebler.

Tags: care team communication, Care Collaboration, Secure Messaging