Northwest Michigan Surgery Center Selects RTLS from Versus
Traverse City, Michigan—Michigan’s largest surgery center, Northwest Michigan Surgery Center recently selected the Versus Advantages™ Real-time Locating System (RTLS) to help improve the patient care experience. Key focus areas include relaying patient status information to families in the waiting room and automated process flow management for clinical staff.
Northwest Michigan Surgery Center is one of the largest surgery centers in Michigan and ranked among the top in the nation. Averaging around 80 patients per day within their six operating rooms and four procedure rooms, the center maintains an incredibly high patient volume, which it seeks to continually improve and manage.
Currently, Northwest Michigan Surgery Center staff manually record and calculate patient wait times. When using the Versus Advantages Clinic solution, patients will receive a small Clearview Badge which emits a safe Infrared signal. This locating badge, coupled with the Versus Advantages software, will allow Northwest Michigan Surgery Center to capture, display and report on several patient care elements.?1. They will know instantly and at a glance, how many patients are waiting in the waiting room and other areas of the clinic. 2. On the exam and surgery sides, they’ll know exactly where each patient is, when and where they interacted with staff and where the patient is in terms of the visit progression. 3. They’ll know how long each patient has been waiting, how long since the patient was last seen and how much time the patient spends with the Medical Assistant, Nurse, Physician or lab technician. 4. They’ll be able to share this information with patients’ family members in the waiting areas via electronic Glance-and-Go™ boards—cutting down on interruptions to staff. 5. The RTLS will be integrated to the clinic’s SourceMedical Vision EHR™ and to the clinic’s scheduling system to automate patient badge assignments.
For the first time, the clinic will be automatically capturing real-time-based patient care metrics and interaction data. “Through the immediate feedback we’ll be providing patients and their families, we expect the solution to have a positive impact on patient satisfaction,” says Jim Stilley, CEO, Northwest Michigan Surgery Center. “Behind the scenes, we’ll be improving our patient flow processes through automation and continuously collecting data that will allow us to evaluate and report on our procedures. This is important to our ongoing patient satisfaction and process improvement goals.”
While more and more clinics have begun to realize the benefits of automated patient workflows to facilitate operations and safety, the concept is still relatively new among clinics. Northwest Michigan Surgery Center is one of many on the growing list of Versus outpatient clinic customers. “Versus was an easy choice to make,” Stilley says. “They’re the only ones in the industry providing the location accuracy necessary to automate clinical workflows, they work with the top healthcare organizations in the nation, and they’re located just miles from our facility. We can’t imagine a better arrangement to bring this technology to our patients.”
About Northwest Michigan Surgery Center
The Northwest Michigan Surgery Center (NMSC) was developed by local physicians, in partnership with Munson Medical Center, to create a state of the art outpatient surgical center. This 90,000-sqare-foot complex has been providing surgical services in Northern Michigan since 2004. The NMSC team is comprised of 80 board certified or board eligible physicians, 43 anesthesia providers, and a dedicated healthcare staff of over 120 people. Providing care to over 17,000 patients annually, the facility optimizes use of its six operating rooms, four procedure rooms and over 44 pre/post-operative beds with five extended stay/overnight rooms. Since its inception, NMSC has maintained the highest level of Federal and State certification as well as national accreditation.
About Versus Technology, Inc.
Established in 1988, Versus Technology, Inc. specializes in real-time location systems (RTLS) for healthcare. Used for enterprise patient tracking, bed management, asset tracking, and nurse call automation, Versus Advantages™ improves patient flow and documentation of caregiver and patient interactions, while enhancing communication and efficiency. Exclusively endorsed by the American Hospital Association, the Versus Advantages infrared (IR) and Active RFID solution is responsible for clinical-grade location and automation at a number of hospitals, clinics and long-term care facilities worldwide. To learn more about Versus Technology, Inc. visit www.versustech.com and take the Advantages Tour.