Medssenger Team
To inaugurate this blog, we announce that we’ve launched our first pilot!
Cardiology Associates and the US Acute Care Solutions (USACS) team at MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital are now using Medssenger for stress test referrals.
Patients visiting the Emergency Department (ED) for chest pain that are determined to be low risk are commonly sent home with the recommendation that they see a cardiologist for a stress test within 72 hours. This seemingly simple task is more complicated than people would imagine. Calls to cardiologists after hours for routine follow up are not well received. Relying on the patient to make all the arrangements often times fails. Accomplishing this task requires a closed loop hand off to make sure the appointment was made and any possible barriers to timely follow up are addressed.
To make this process more efficient, the USACS team in the St. Mary’s Hospital ED will use Medssenger to send a task to the Cardiology Associates team. The referral will include patient contact info, the HEART score along with supporting data, and an image of the EKG. This HIPAA compliant message will then alert the cardiologist and office staff the next morning, helping them reach out to schedule the patient in the appropriate timeframe.
What’s key here is that this simple change in the process transforms the care delivery from push to pull. Medssenger will also facilitate reaching out to patients to provide proactive care for those with risks and needs. Medssenger can be used by the entire care team from physicians to case managers, nurses, and schedulers to communicate with the patient to keep their care on track. This is the coordinated, team-oriented care that drives better outcomes population-wide. Further pilots are in development for chronic disease management use cases.
Stay tuned in the coming months for details on the outcome of the pilot and for progress we will be making in providing seamless care everywhere through Medssenger.