Helping patients manage their pain is important to every healthcare facility. Being able to monitor and record each patient’s pain level on an ongoing basis can be challenging, as it takes a large amount of a nurse’s time. According to Lorraine Leake, Director of the Transfer Center and Communications at Valley Health, the ongoing charting “takes away time from the patient, so anything we can do to help the nurse, so they are doing more bedside. That is our goal.”

1. Case Study
Valley Health – Winchester Medical Center
Using Automation to Improve Patient Care by
Monitoring Pain Pathways
V alley Health is a not-for-
profit organization serving
the healthcare needs of resi-
ity, trying to find a way to make it
easier for the nurses to monitor
pain levels. Knowing that they
that patient’s room, and pages
the appropriate nurse with the
result.
dents in Virginia, West Virginia, had the 1Call Infinity, a call center
and Maryland. Valley Health pro- system that streamlines enter- Impressive Results
vides outstanding care to their prise-wide communications by This unique integration was im-
patients through a system of six providing patient room informa- plemented in November 2009.
hospitals and related facilities, of- tion and on-call scheduling infor- “It is used in every inpatient area,
fering patients convenient care mation, along with the GetWell- except for the critical care area. It
that is close to home. One of the Network, which allows patients is on 335 beds out of our 411,” Lor-
Valley Health locations is Win- to enter their pain level with a raine stated.
chester Medical Center, a 411-bed remote control, Lorraine began
Level II Trauma Center located in working on a plan to get the two Early results showed a 48% aver-
Winchester, Virginia. Winchester systems to work together. age response rate from patients.
Medical Center is a resource for
400,000 residents, offering di- “For a pain scale 0 to 3 … it saved
agnostic, medical, surgical, and 69,066 minutes in a two-month period,
rehabilitative care, along with which turns out to be 1,151 hours.
advanced critical care services in
heart, neurosurgery, oncology,
For a pain scale rating from 4 to 10 …
trauma and neonatal care. it saved 74,988 minutes; basically
1,249 hours within a two-month period.”
A Unique Approach
Helping patients manage their Lorraine presented her ideas on A time study revealed that check-
pain is important to every health- merging the data in these systems ing on a patient takes a nurse 9
care facility. Being able to moni- to both 1Call and GetWellNet- minutes. Susan Clark, RN Clini-
tor and record each patient’s work. The two companies then cal Manager for the Float Pool at
pain level on an ongoing basis worked together to integrate the Valley Health, commented, “For
can be challenging, as it takes a two systems. a pain scale of 0 to 3, when the
large amount of a nurse’s time. nurse doesn’t have to do any-
How the Pain Pathway thing since the patient’s pain is
According to Lorraine Leake, Process Works being controlled, it saved 69,066
Director of the Transfer Center To start the pain pathway process, minutes in a two-month period,
and Communications at Valley a nurse scans a medication given which turns out to be 1,151 hours.
Health, the ongoing charting to a patient. Fifty minutes later, For a pain scale rating from 4 to
“takes away time from the pa- the patient is asked, using the 10, where the nurse would have
tient, so anything we can do to GetWellNetwork on their televi- to do something, it saved 74,988
help the nurse, so they are doing sion, to rate their current pain lev- minutes; basically 1,249 hours
more bedside. That is our goal.” el on a scale of 0 (low) to 10 (high). within a two-month period.”
The result is sent through the
Integrating Two Systems GetWellNetwork to 1Call’s On-Call
Lorraine looked at the various Scheduling module, which keeps
systems available in their facil- track of the nurse responsible for continued…

2. Customer Spotlight • Customer Spotlight • Customer Spotlight
Valley Health
Meeting Joint Commission many pages that they receive, the nurses when patients have fin-
Standards benefits for the nurses make it a ished watching a video, or com-
During a recent visit, the Joint very worthwhile process. “They pleted educational materials
Commission staff was impressed don’t have to go to the patient’s about a particular medication, for
with how the pain pathway was room, then get the medications, example.
set up at Valley Health. and then go back again. They are
there one time, and that saves “We are trying to improve our pa-
Joint Commission would like all them a lot of steps,” said Lorraine. tient satisfaction scores, our HCAP
healthcare facilities to have 100% scores,” Susan commented.
documentation of pain scores. Fine-Tuning the Process
Valley Health’s scores were “origi- At first, Valley Health wasn’t About 1Call
nally around 59%, and went up to planning to use this system in For over 35 years, AMTELCO has
89% in documentation with the the Pediatrics department, be- been a leading provider of en-
pain pathway. The scores have cause they were worried the kids hanced communications innova-
gone up to 92% with this system wouldn’t understand it, or think it tions. The 1Call Division of AM-
in place,” according to Lorraine. was a game. The Pediatric nurses, TELCO is a leader in developing
on the other hand, wanted to healthcare-specific applications
Valley Health quickly found out have this available for their pa- that are being used by hundreds
what an effective process this tients. When it was implemented, of hospitals and healthcare orga-
was. When the schedules for the it worked very well. nizations worldwide. The primary
nurses covering the patient rooms focus for 1Call and AMTELCO is to
weren’t copied by several depart- RED ALERT Integration design applications that offer cut-
ments, the scores went down, giv- Valley Health also uses the 1Call ting-edge technology to reduce
ing them a way to prove that the RED ALERT notification system. labor costs, eliminate errors, and
pain pathway process is working. “We are sending reminders out increase efficiency.
through RED ALERT, every so
Benefits of the Integration many hours, reminding the nurs- About GetWellNetwork
Even though the process is auto- es ‘to chart your medications,’” GetWellNetwork entertains,
mated, Valley Health still knows Lorraine said. Susan added, “That educates, and empowers pa-
when something isn’t function- has brought up scores on some of tients throughout the patient
ing exactly as they would expect the floors that are very busy and journey using the bedside TV
it to. If a patient doesn’t respond always turning over beds and pa- in the hospital, mobile devices,
to the GetWellNetwork pain level tients.” Web or Cable TV at home. This
request, perhaps because their patient-centered approach im-
television is off, or the patient was Future Plans proves both satisfaction and out-
asleep, the nurse receives a page This process is currently used with comes for patients and hospitals.
that the patient did not respond the alphanumeric pagers that the GetWellNetwork is recognized
so the nurse can go check up on nurses carry, “but our system is by KLAS® as the Interactive Pa-
that patient. set up to send a page to a Black- tient Systems category leader
Berry® or a cell phone, or any de- and exclusively endorsed by the
Although there were mixed reac- vice,” Lorraine stated. American Hospital Association.
tions to this new process among Visit www.GetWellNetwork.com.
the nurses, with some of them Also in the future, Valley Health
loving it, and some not liking the plans to use this process to page
(800)225-6035 • www.1call.com • info@1call.com
4800 Curtin Drive • McFarland, WI 53558
(608)838-4194 • FAX (608)838-8367
April 2011