One of Memorial’s strategic priorities is to offer the latest tools and technology that support outstanding healthcare, engage patients and families, and improve the overall healthcare experience.

A benchmark of success toward that goal is Memorial’s continued recognition as a “Most Wired” healthcare organization by Hospitals & Health Networks. Memorial was one of 27 health systems – one of only two in Florida – named as “Advanced” in technological innovation.

Computerworld this year named Memorial one of the “100 Best Places to Work in IT,” recognizing Memorial for offering IT professionals a workplace environment that values their opinions and listens to what they have to say.

Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital earned Stage 7 accolades from HIMSS Analytics, making it internationally recognized as a top-level system in technological advancement. HIMSS surveys hospitals and health systems around the world, with fewer than 5 percent of hospitals earning the highest-possible Stage 7 marks.

Here are just some of the advancements that help put Memorial on the leading edge of a technologically sophisticated experience for patients, families, physicians and employees alike.

MemorialDOCNow Provides Secure Telehealth, 24/7

Since its inception in spring 2017, Memorial’s telehealth initiative MemorialDOCNow has provided approximately 7,600 virtual consultations to Memorial employees and their dependents for non-emergency medical concerns like flu, allergies and infections – without having to leave their offices or homes.

MyChartBedside Debuts

Helping inpatients get a handle on their health information and keep up with their treatments is MyChartBedside, which Memorial’s IT team piloted at Memorial Hospital West and Memorial Hospital Pembroke. Patients receive tablets on which they can check their length of stay, test results, health records, medications, lab values, upcoming treatments and expected date of discharge. MyChartBedside is especially valuable for rehabilitation patients, providing them with details on their conditions, therapies and other information they need for their discharge home.

Online Scheduling Expands

Memorial continued to expand its convenient online scheduling opportunities for outpatient tests and procedures and appointments at Memorial Pembroke 24/7 Care Center and Memorial Hospital Pembroke’s Emergency Department. Online scheduling for mammograms debuted in October 2017, with appointments for lab tests and cardiology coming soon.

Check-In Kiosks Help Streamline Customer Service

Automated kiosks for check-in and processing give arriving patients easier, faster and more targeted access to Memorial services. Last year’s newly introduced kiosks at Memorial’s urgent care and emergency departments raised their utilization rate to between 60 and 70 percent, helping providers identify patients’ conditions and triage them for swift attention and treatment. Next up: Kiosks will be installed in outpatient areas throughout the system.

A Groundbreaking Technological Partnership to Improve Population Health

Memorial took another significant step toward its technological strategic goals by implementing EPIC’s Healthy Planet, a population health management platform that compiles patient data across time, shares it more efficiently, and tracks care through analytics, daily metric dashboards, wellness/chronic disease registries, and measurements against national averages, among other features.

As a first-of-its-kind technology partnership between Memorial and the accountable care organization Orange Care Group, Healthy Planet is an important part of Memorial’s answer to the challenge of better population health management.

“By reconciling both internal and external data, this technology provides us with a more comprehensive view of our patients and will help drive superior outcomes over time at a much lower cost,” said Monica Puga, Vice President, Population Health and IT Clinical Systems.

Your Right to Know Healthcare Costs

Memorial is committed to providing the kind of information that helps patients make informed healthcare decisions, including the cost of services. Over the past two years, Memorial has partnered with Automated Health Care Solutions to develop Your Right to Know, an easy-to-use, web-based guide to the pricing of common medical procedures, at both self-pay and insured rates. You can search by service (such as bariatric or cardiology), procedure and even by body part.

With the healthcare landscape changing at an increasingly rapid pace, Memorial Healthcare System developed an innovative system-wide Nursing Strategic Plan designed to provide its nursing team with a guiding principle that allows every member to envision the future with the organization’s values and mission in mind.

The plan addresses five key priorities to focus efforts and actions over the next three to five years, with every member of the nursing team working toward the same goals. These are:

• Superior Outcomes – Achieve superior outcomes in nursing sensitive indicators to attain the highest quality metrics in patient care delivery
• Professional Development and Clinical Competencies – Cultivate a learning environment that sets the standard for nursing care and fosters exemplary practice and professional development
• Nurse Engagement – Commit to being an employer of choice, with hiring practices, compensation and development opportunities that encourage staff recruitment and retention
• Collaboration and Best Practices – Lead with a proven care delivery model that is patient-family centered, represents “the best practice” nationally, and showcases the power of intra-professional collaboration
• Technology – Leverage technology to achieve new levels of personalized care, maximize patient outcomes and optimize the safety of care processes