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Turning Clinical Data Into Action: Building Better Workflows Through Collaboration with Connexall · Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

• 0:00
  Hi, everyone. This is Lucas Voss with Becker's
• 0:02
  Healthcare. Thanks so much for tuning in to
• 0:03
  the Becker's Healthcare podcast series. It's fantastic to
• 0:06
  have you all on. Today, we're going to
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  talk about turning clinical data into everyday
• 0:12
  action, and I'm very excited to be joined
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  by two guests today for today's discussion.
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  Ashley Hunsucker, senior clinical informatics specialist at Conexol,
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  and Jan Capps, director of clinical services and
• 0:23
  outcomes also with Conexol. Ashley and Jan, thanks
• 0:26
  so much for being here today. It's great
• 0:27
  to have you both.
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  Hi, Louise. Having us. Yeah. Absolutely. We'll start
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  with introductions for our audience here. Ashley, why
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  don't we start off with you? If you
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  wanna introduce ourselves to our audience and share
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  a little bit about your work in health
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  care.
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  Sure.
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  My name is Ashley Hunsucker. I'm a registered
• 0:44
  nurse, been been in a registered nurse for
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  over twenty plus years.
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  I hold a master's degree in clinical nursing
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  informatics with a clinical background in NICU and
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  pediatric care.
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  Those
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  strong foundational
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  settings of acute patient centered care
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  transitioned me over to education for, eight years.
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  So clinical instructor, teaching didactyl,
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  on-site clinical rotation simulations,
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  and informatics,
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  and shaping that next generation of nurses is
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  very important to me. Rolled over and transitioned
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  into informatics back in 2020
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  where natural evolution of the bedside and education
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  spun into informatics
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  and has helped build,
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  and center foundation for me inside of that
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  patient, centered care to support our nurses into
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  health care technology.
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  So excited to hear all of your perspectives
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  on this. Very excited. Jan, I'll hand it
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  over to you for introductions as well.
• 1:39
  Sure. Thanks, Lucas.
• 1:41
  My name is Jan Capps. As I said,
• 1:43
  I get to, be the pleasure of leading
• 1:45
  our clinical team here at Connexal.
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  I'm a registered nurse by background. I've been
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  a nurse for twenty seven years. I've been
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  in the health care space for
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  a little over thirty,
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  traditional bedside nursing, emergency department, cath lab, interventional
• 2:00
  radiology,
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  really was, quite interested in operations and hospital
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  operations specifically. So
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  several leadership opportunities within that space,
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  also in the ambulatory
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  space, and then crossed over to the dark
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  side of IT Mhmm. And spent the second
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  half of my career,
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  leading
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  EMR implementations,
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  ancillary systems implementations,
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  and really love that space
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  between,
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  technology and the bedside caregiver. So informatics
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  was just a natural fit
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  and,
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  moved over into that space. So, again, you
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  get the opportunity to
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  leverage what you know at the bedside, what
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  you've learned through operations,
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  blend that with IT, and that's the recipe
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  for informatics. So that's why we're here.
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  Absolutely. I think it's so great too because
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  you know what insights really count from your
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  own experience at the bedside, which is very,
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  very important, and that's sort of what I
• 3:00
  wanna start off with here too. When it
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  comes to improving care delivery,
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  those actionable insights are so important
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  at the bedside. Having them at the bedside,
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  having them available is is so important.
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  Ashley, I wanna start with you here. Can
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  you walk us through why that's so important
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  and how clinical teams can operationalize
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  those insights
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  in a way that aligns with their existing
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  workflows?
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  Yeah. Sure.
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  So actual insight is extremely important when you're
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  building workflows for those end users. So making
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  the right decisions
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  and leading into that design of workflow, we
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  use real data and on-site assessments here at
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  Connexal,
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  and that helps provide
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  us the clinical informatics, the insight using that
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  qualitative and quantitative
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  data
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  so that we can look and assess and
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  identify those actual gaps
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  that might be contributing to breaking down
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  the adoption for the end user. So
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  we look at how the end user is
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  being effective. Right? So when we start there,
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  it allows for that more organic
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  approach rather than pushing
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  some sort of software or technology out and
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  then it's gonna abruptly disrupt things. We look
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  at how can we soft launch this into
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  their day and,
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  deploy it to fit within their day and
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  create,
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  not so much impact of their normal natural
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  organic workflow for the end user.
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  Yeah. The least disruption possible, I think. Correct.
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  Correct. One of the keys there.
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  Jen, just a follow-up to this.
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  How do you ensure then those insights remain
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  relevant across organizations?
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  Well, it's it's not really a set it
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  and forget it mentality. You have to go
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  back. You have to monitor. You have to
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  refine.
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  You know, technology is is is a good
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  thing. It it can be a tremendous asset
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  when it's properly leveraged.
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  But with that, you have to be mindful
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  that with all these advances in tech, there's
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  just an overwhelming amount of information
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  that the bedside caregiver is just being bombarded
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  with. And a lot of that's not
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  actionable, meaning it's not gonna drive a meaningful
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  interaction between the patient and the caregiver.
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  And with all of these changes, I mean,
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  things change in practice.
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  You may introduce a new piece of technology.
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  It just really
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  highlights the fact that this has to be
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  an ongoing journey.
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  You have to be nimble enough to change.
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  You as Ashley said, you've gotta lean into
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  your data. You've got to do observations,
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  and you have to be willing to ask
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  yourself the hard question, which is,
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  do I need to change the way I'm
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  doing my day to day work? And if
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  so,
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  what parts of that workflow can be be
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  influenced
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  and when?
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  And so, again, it just really sets you
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  up for that ongoing process improvement journey, and
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  data is such a a key point of
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  that.
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  Looking at how your system's operating,
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  you know, surveying and interviewing your teams, getting
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  their feedback,
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  and just really taking all of those inputs
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  for that continuous process improvement. It's very important.
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  Yeah. And and, Jen, you you touched on
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  a very important point. I think this can
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  get overwhelming.
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  Right? It's one of those things that there's
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  so much, there there's potential to for it
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  to be overwhelming.
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  What role does collaboration
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  between clinical and technical teams play during implementation
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  and optimization
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  phases,
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  and what should what conversations should teams have
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  early on to maybe
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  avoid some of that overwhelming
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  feeling and being able to really operationalize this?
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  Well, I mean, collaboration is just huge. And
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  if you spend any time with me at
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  all, you'll find out that I say repeatedly
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  clinically
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  and operationally
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  led projects and IT enabled.
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  Mhmm. And you've really gotta lean into the
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  expertise of both groups.
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  They need to be at the table early,
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  and this really even goes back before you
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  implement.
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  Yeah. You need to have,
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  clinical and IT
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  alignment at that c suite all the way
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  down,
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  and be involved in those decisions around system
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  selection. I mean, that's huge for buy in,
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  throughout the project prior to even just getting
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  into the implementation
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  phases.
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  But, obviously, once you get to implementation,
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  it's, again, it's taking that time
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  to,
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  for the clinical
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  team to understand
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  how the tech
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  should work or potentially
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  could work and then vice versa.
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  You need to understand what the day to
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  day life is of the person that's gonna
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  be using the tech. That's how you guide
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  thoughtful design sessions and and decisions. And and,
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  again, with Connexal, that's that's one of the
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  things that our informaticists do. We're we're that
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  liaison and that bridge during the implementation
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  and and through optimization
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  on helping guide those conversations and bringing those
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  various stakeholders together.
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  Yeah. And only then can something happen that
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  Ashley mentioned earlier in the conversation, right, the
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  least amount of disruption for everybody and and
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  being able to support those workflows. I think
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  that's that's very important.
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  Ashley, I wanna come back to you here.
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  You talked about, you know, the importance of
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  feedback loops and and continuous
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  improvement quite a bit.
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  Can you talk about what methods of feedback
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  have worked well,
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  and what's been most effective in driving engagement
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  and sustaining improvements over time?
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  Sure. Sure. So first off, it's for us,
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  it's not just about launching a system. It's
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  about setting it up to truly work for
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  the people that are using it. So back
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  to Jan mentioning that engaging and collaboration
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  early and often,
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  One of the key some of the key
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  things that we do I don't wanna say
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  there's just one because they're all really independent
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  on each other.
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  So we survey
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  very early on in engagement. We survey the
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  frontline staff. So we wanna hear from them.
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  We wanna hear all the pains, all the
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  the frustrations,
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  all the things. We wanna hear it. And
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  we also ask questions that are more culture
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  related and adopt as far as how things
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  are being used,
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  not just on their alarms, but maybe with
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  their devices and things of that nature, policies,
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  procedures. We wanna take a look at everything.
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  From that information, then we start internally
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  dissecting it out, looking at still the data,
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  looking at the responses from staff, trying to
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  see where there are those gaps. But we
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  we discuss potential pitfalls and things of that
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  with leadership, which is a great way to
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  help open the communication but identify it so
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  we can close those gaps. We additionally,
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  going through the go live post go live,
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  we opt do optimization with the staff,
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  follow-up with them on-site, continue to have,
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  face to face interviews and feedback,
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  getting information from them, watching them how this
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  deployment is engaging in their day to day,
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  what can we do better to take it
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  back to the team of our, customer to
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  give them
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  our our suggestions of this is what we
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  saw, this is what may could help. It
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  could be there's an education gap that we
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  need to revisit.
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  So starting to look for ways to close
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  those gaps
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  helps close the loop and keeps those continuous
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  measures. We're always looking at the data, so
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  I run, data
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  reports from prior to go live, during go
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  live. Go live is always, you know, shaky
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  ground, so we we try not to get
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  too hung up on. We want the dust
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  to settle a little bit for staff to
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  really kinda settle in so we can look
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  at that repetitive behavior
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  to see why things may not be working
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  to the optimization piece. So that's how we
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  try to close those loops. And it's been
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  pretty well received.
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  Having those executive summaries available for leadership to
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  take to the levels they need to for
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  support is is helpful as well.
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  Yeah. And I just wanted to follow-up on
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  this too. Has there anything you have these
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  conversations, and you have these, on implementation all
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  the time.
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  From that feedback that you've gotten, is there
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  are there any learnings or insights that have
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  surprised you, Ashley, in this process?
• 11:19
  Nothing surprises me, Lucas.
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  I I would too so. Yes.
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  Nothing surprises me. You have to be you
• 11:26
  have to be ready to pivot all the
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  time. Yeah.
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  Nothing surprises me at this point. I'm surprised
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  when things go as planned. That's probably the
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  surprise.
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  You have the data. Right? There shouldn't be
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  any surprises.
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  Right. And it's interesting because the data,
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  you look at it and you're like, well,
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  this is what I'm seeing. And so when
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  you when you're able to con confirm that
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  that's truly what's happening on the floors and
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  the units,
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  so then we have to peel the layer
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  back. Why is this happening?
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  Yeah. How can we change this behavior? How
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  can we reduce this?
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  How can we get this, rate higher? Those
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  kind of things. So the data supports it,
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  but it's only one half of the picture
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  really going and seeing how it is
• 12:10
  yes. We can we can look to see,
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  okay, these are the big things I'm looking
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  at in your data. Now let's get on-site
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  and really dig down into into the weeds
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  with this.
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  Yeah. Jan, same for you. I I'd love
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  to hear from you as well from sort
• 12:22
  of the feedback that you're hearing, the conversations
• 12:24
  that you're having.
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  Are there any learnings or insights that that
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  surprise you, or is it the same thing?
• 12:30
  Nothing surprises
• 12:32
  you. I mean, I had to laugh when
• 12:34
  Ashley said that because she stole my answer,
• 12:36
  quite frankly. I mean There you go.
• 12:38
  This
• 12:39
  just when you think you've seen it all.
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  But, no. Nothing really surprises me. What what
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  I do like about, you know, the space
• 12:46
  that we work in is
• 12:49
  you always go into it with the best
• 12:51
  intentions,
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  and there's always an opportunity
• 12:54
  to learn and grow with each implementation.
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  And so being able to pick up those
• 12:59
  lessons learned and share them with other people
• 13:02
  within our community, whether it's a customer, whether
• 13:05
  it's just networking with our peers,
• 13:08
  that's how we grow as a profession,
• 13:10
  and that's how we're able to continue to
• 13:12
  make a a positive impact
• 13:15
  with these health care implementations,
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  with workflow optimization.
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  And so
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  any of those surprises
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  really turn into nuggets of lessons learned.
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  Absolutely. And I think that's a great way
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  to end our podcast episode today with these
• 13:30
  nuggets learned. Jen and Ashley, thank you so
• 13:32
  much for your time and insights today. This
• 13:34
  was a fantastic conversation. Thanks for being here.
• 13:37
  Yeah. Thank you, Lucas.
• 13:39
  Yeah. Thanks. We appreciate the opportunity and and
• 13:42
  being a guest.
• 13:43
  Absolutely. We also want to thank our podcast
• 13:45
  sponsor, ConnexAll. You can tune in to more
• 13:47
  podcasts from Becker's Healthcare by visiting our podcast
• 13:49
  page at beckershospitalreview.com.