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- Hello everyone.
And welcome to The Wrap,
brought to you by Michigan Medicine Headlines.
I'm Dan Ellman with the department of communication.
This week you're in for quite an experience,
as we discussed the patient experience during COVID-19.
Before we dive into that discussion
make sure you go back and experience
any previous episodes of The Wrap, you may have missed.
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News shows they view weekly
and can always be found in Headlines.
All right, the past few months have been challenging,
not just for employees, but for patients as well.
To discuss that and what the organization is doing to help
let's bring in Molly Dwyer White,
the director of patient experience at Michigan Medicine.
Molly, thank you so much for being here.
- Thank you so much for having me Daniel.
- Now first can you explain your role in the organization
and what the goal of the office of patient experience is?
- Absolutely, so basically our vision
in the office of patient experience
is helping everyone in our organization
deliver consistent patient family centered care.
Where all patients and their families feel welcomed
and respected, and included and involved
as partners in shared decision making.
Ultimately what we're aiming for
is including patients and families
to manage a comprehensive well coordinated care plan.
- Now I know that's obviously been a challenge
over the past few months,
especially with visitor protocols
and things like that changing.
So what have been some of the biggest challenges
you've faced in the office of patient experience?
- Without a doubt having to limit the number of visitors,
which means family members in this era,
has been extremely painful,
not just for the patients and the families
that wanna be together, but also for staff
that have come to really rely upon family members
as partners in care decision making
and helping engage with patients
who oftentimes are too sick,
to discuss their needs and preferences and values.
So their presence has been really greatly missed.
So a lot of the work we've been doing
over this time is helping folks.
So not only helping manage that visitor policy
and expanding it when the governor allowed us to,
to allow more family members to be present,
but also helping family members connect to patients
while they're away.
Because even with more allowances
there still it can't be a whole family
coming in for example.
So we're looking at how do we utilize technology
and other ways to keep people connected.
So it's been challenging
but on a lot of really amazing moments
and work has come out of it,
that I think has helped make this time bearable.
- And I know that that's true
and we'll get to that in a second.
One other thing I was just of thinking about too,
it's not just the visitor policy too that's changed.
There's not as many volunteers on campus,
Hope Ambassador program, things like that
that people had sort of come to rely on.
Can you talk a little bit about that?
- Yeah, absolutely I mean, because we had to limit
to just really core essential workers.
And even though our volunteers provide very valued services
all over the organization,
safety had to come first.
And so our ambassador program has been on pause.
We're looking to just have a slow re-ramp now,
but many, many volunteers that provide help,
whether it's the gift shops or helping up on units
or in clinics, all of that has had to be paused.
So that's really been a hardship for our organization
and just how we normally function.
So a lot of those special touches
that Michigan Medicine is known for
have had to be put on pause,
and we're having to think in new ways
of how we can still really have those connecting moments.
- Now how have faculty and staff stepped up
to sort of overcome those hardships?
- Honestly, Daniel, I think that has been overwhelming
to see on very, very big ways,
of seeing how staff that came out of different areas
to volunteer, to set up, to figure out something
that the whole nation was figuring out,
the whole world has been trying to figure out
how do we take best safest care of these patients?
And how does that impact the rest of our patients?
So seeing all that amazing innovation,
people working really together
outside of segment sort of model, has been enormous.
But what's been most impressive
is to hear these stories
of patients that are in these really tough spots
and staff bending over backwards
to really make meaningful moments for them.
And many patients that had to experience their last days
in our organization.
What staff were doing
to hold their hand in those hard moments,
to call their families, to connect them,
to bring them in when we could.
It's just been incredible.
- So how have some of our faculty and staff
worked in ways to sort of overcome those hardships?
- That has been, Daniel,
one of the most heartwarming
and also just makes you love this place
even when it's hard days.
Because staff have stepped up in so many ways
that have just been enormous,
from the way that they brought together the care units
the RICU and little RICU to help,
we were ready to care for the sickest of sick patients
and how we manage the patients
that we had to see their care in a different way.
So the clinical teams have been phenomenal,
but it's also been folks in many, many different areas
in the organization that have really stepped up in huge ways
like environmental services comes to mind,
because you're seeing
that they're taking all these extra time and hours,
extra measures to make sure we're up to the latest
and greatest infection control measures.
As well as social workers and house officers
that are making those phone calls all hours of the day,
it's just powerful.
As well as like child life and all these other groups,
social work that are making those moments,
cause people still have birthdays
and there were people making that possible,
holding up signs and doing all those important things
because we're human.
And so seeing people connect on that human level.
And I was also really impressed with all the staff
that worked in different areas in the organization,
including in the ambulatory care site.
All these incredible things
and as well as people volunteering to deliver food
to the folks on the frontline.
So I feel like everybody was really aware
that they're in it together and we're gonna get there
if we stick together and rode together.
So it was really amazing.
- I think that's one of the great things to take away
from the past few months.
What are some other sort of positive takeaways
or maybe things that we've learned now since March,
that we'll carry with us forward
long after COVID-19 has gone?
- Well, that is a really good question.
I think we've learned a lot.
I think just having gone through this exercise,
I think we'll be ready for other waves
and that sort of thing.
And also have as an organization
recognized how valuable the family presence is
and how do we integrate that?
Because if we are gonna be on this restricted visitors
for a while, we need to be more robust
in how we engage them and these things.
I think there's a lot with technology
that has brought to light where we can advance.
I mean in virtual care, the way that had sped up.
It's trajectory has been really impressive,
but there's so much more we could do
to support families and patients.
And even some of the things that we mentioned,
volunteers not being there.
So there's a lot of services that we would normally provide,
like gifts of art type of services.
Now we're starting to look at ways
that we can offer that virtually in things like iPads
to help deliver some of that.
So that's some of the good that's coming out of it
that I wanted to do two years ago
that this kind of helped say, aha,
now we really have more gas
to get it where we want it to go.
- Are there other things, once again looking beyond COVID,
are there other sort of programs
that you're looking forward to introducing
in the months and years ahead,
through the office of patient experience?
- Oh my gosh, yes.
To be honest one of the biggest things
that we want to work on
is really looking at how we're meeting the needs
of diverse populations.
So that's not a program so much as a sort of initiative
that will be ongoing.
And we've been doing a lot of work in that,
but I think we're up in the game there.
But I think that programmatically yeah,
I think we really wanna lean into more
what are the amenities and services we could be offering?
And there's some neat things
we've been working on with nursing where it can be,
how do we help?
It's get to know me, is what we've been calling it
at that framework of how we can at a low tech level
get to know patients and help people know them,
whether they're on the floor or in the clinic,
and then help them remember the known throughout the system.
And to me there's a lot of mechanisms of how we do that,
how we build in family caregiver roles
and ultimately make it easier for patients and families
to navigate through our system.
So we have a lot of really cool things,
low tech and higher tech that we're hoping to roll out.
- Outstanding, I look forward to seeing those take shape.
So thank you so much Molly
for sharing all of this information.
If you wanna learn even more
about Molly's perspective on what's going on,
a full Q&A with her was published this week in Headlines.
You can find that at mmheadlines.org.
That's mmheadlines.org.
While you're there,
check out other featured stories from the past week.
For instance the week began with tips
on how you can help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Readers were given resources
on improving their mental health
during these challenging times.
The faculty and staff were recognized
for making a difference last month.
Find those stories and much more at mmheadlines.org.
All right it's time for the weekly trivia contest.
Last week we asked listeners,
the first resident physician
began working at Michigan Medicine in what year?
The answer was 1874.
Congratulations to Melissa Clive
who sent in the correct answer.
Melissa, a member of the department of communication
will be in touch shortly to help you claim your prize.
Now for this week's question.
Which MHealthy campaign
is designed to help employees incorporate gratitude
into their day to day work and personal lives?
Once again, which MHealthy campaign is designed
to help employees incorporate gratitude
into their day to day and personal lives?
The answer can be found
in this week's Wellness Wednesday Headline story.
And once you know it send it to headlines@med.umish.ddu
for the chance to win a prize.
It's all the time we have for this week.
Thank you so much Molly for joining us
and thank you to all of our listeners and viewers,
for everything you do for patients, families,
and each other.
We'll see you next week.
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