It was time last night for the second Caller-Outer of the Month Award, given by our Board of Directors to an employee who exemplified the principles of BIDMC SPIRIT in pointing out a problem that was interfering with the staff's ability to do their jobs. This one went to Sharon O'Donoghue, clinical specialist in the medical intensive care units, seen above.
Here's the story. Last spring, based on observations from several ICU nurses, Sharon called out a frustrating problem: Inpatient nurses were unable to read many consult notes or follow up on tests because they did not have access to webOMR. WebOMR displays results and provides access to notes and other documentation. Instead, the nurses had to waste time searching in different locations for labs, imaging and plans of care.
Why? Because the original version of webOMR was optimized for outpatient workflows and was initially rolled out to outpatient providers. It had never been offered to the inpatient nurses or authorized to them as part of their information system log-in credentials. In fact these nurses first learned about the existence of the system when they happened to look over the shoulders of some doctors! Absent this access, the nurses had to use older programs that were not as complete, were not web-based, and were not as easy to use. This situation had existed for years.
Within a couple of days, Larry Markson, MD, Vice President, Clinical Information Systems, provided a simple way to give read access to webOMR to the inpatient RN staff, fitting the inpatient workflow. The result was enhanced patient care and improvement in the day-to-day lives of our 1400 nurses.
Sharon received a congratulatory letter, plus two super tickets to a Red Sox game of her choice this spring.
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