Sentara Healthcare, CipherHealth partner to improve quality of care for patients

Sentara Healthcare is partnering with CipherHealth to implement a new software technology aimed at modernizing the rounding process to deliver improved quality of care and satisfaction among patients and staff. Sentara is deploying Orchid, CipherHealth's cutting-edge rounding technology as part of an initiative to streamline the way patients and family members provide feedback during their hospital stays.

Initially launched as a pilot program at two sites, Orchid allowed Sentara to achieve significant improvement in HCAHPS performance. Based on the success of the pilot, Orchid will be rolled out at 10 out of 12 Sentara hospitals in the first half of 2015.

Sentara Healthcare has nine of the top 20 hospitals in Virginia for patient satisfaction. Orchid will help solidify Sentara's position by making sure every patient concern is captured, resolved, and aggregated to support continuous improvement, a vast upgrade from the "pen and paper" rounding of the past.

"We've seen an opportunity to be more purposeful, available, and thorough in our rounding process," said Genemarie McGee, Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer for Sentara Healthcare, "Drive-by rounding isn't enough," she adds. "It's important to have a tool that encourages meaningful conversations between nurses and patients while making it easier to identify areas for improvement."

In developing Orchid, CipherHealth had a dual focus: the patient experience and the user's need to make rounding efficient and effective. This approach led to many helpful features including:

• Intuitive Interface that allows for staff to get acquainted with and using the system quickly;
• EMR Compatibility to allow for patient data to be pulled directly from the EMR;
• Streamlined Issues Management allows for problems to be routed directly from the interface to the appropriate department for service recovery and confirmation of completion;
• Robust Analytics Platform allows administrators and staff to create tailored reports to drive process improvement with actionable data.

"We are thrilled to work with Sentara on this exciting initiative," said Alicia Yang, Senior Account Strategist for CipherHealth. "Sentara's dedication to continuously improving not only patient satisfaction, but also the lives of their nurses, is exactly what our products aim to achieve."

Orchid is the second patient care solution from CipherHealth that Sentara has introduced. In 2013, Sentara introduced Voice, a post-discharge follow-up solution designed to reduce patient readmissions. The success of Voice led Sentara to partner with CipherHealth to introduce Orchid across its hospitals in 2015.