ASC Communications, Inc.

38 Executive Briefing ShareSafe Solutions: A leader in Mobile Enterprise Platforms; fusing Biometric Authentication, Advanced Communication and Knowledge Dissemination for delivering better patient care. ShareSafe—setting a new standard in engagement, workflow and security. or four systems [with passwords]," says Dean Brown, CEO of the orthopedic clinic and ASC. To mitigate this risk and alleviate physician fatigue with multiple passwords, Alabama Orthopaedic Clinic, Gulf Coast Surgical Partners, co-owned by Springhill Medical Center, adopted ShareSafe's SafeShield and SafeLaunch. "It reduced stress within our IT department who were doing password resets," Mr. Brown says. Many physicians spend a large chunk of their time engaging in "desktop medicine," which includes tasks such as fulfilling online orders or communicating with patients through an online portal. A Health Affairs study found physicians spend almost 50 percent of their day on desktop medicine. Accumulated hours behind the computer screen translate to clinician dissatisfaction and burnout. "Physicians don't want to come in and manually enter information to get into their systems," Mr. Spitler says. "[We have found] they love the fact that SafeShield and SafeLaunch allow them to get into multiple applications with one touch in about 16 seconds." The power of effective communication and collaboration: SafeConnect Ineffective communication can result in a plethora of issues, with severe cases putting patient safety in jeopardy. The Joint Commission found 70 percent of medical errors are due to a breakdown in communication. To mitigate this risk, ShareSafe offers ASCs SafeConnect, a HIPAA-secure, comprehensive communication platform. Within SafeConnect, users can communicate with other staff members through text message, video message and internal email. The ability to communicate within a secure ecosystem is crucial, as other communication methods leave practices vulnerable to phishing attacks. Security is a top concern for healthcare organizations, with the average single data breach costing companies $3.8 million, according to Ponemon Institute data. "ASCs and ambulatory clinics, by nature, have an even greater risk [of a cyber attack] than an ordinary small business environment," Mr. Hanson says. Hackers either know or suspect surgery centers have protected health information and may attempt to steal or ransom the information by entering into an ASC's systems. ASCs can protect themselves from these attacks by securing communication within a closed environment and staying alert to cyberattacks through ShareSafe's ShareLytics, which offers real- time analytics that track unusual activities. Using SafeConnect when communicating with team members, ASCs can also set up private groups that allow members to send messages and collaborate internally. Alabama Orthopaedic Clinic and Gulf Coast Surgical Partners established groups within the practice for physicians to share information with their core team members. Mr. Spitler describes this feature as a secure social network similar to LinkedIn or Facebook, but private for each organization. An ASC can choose to set up as many or as few groups as they prefer, and membership in groups can be role- based. With physicians and staff members often facing a multitude emails, it becomes an ineffective method of communication. "When your inbox is inundated with information not related to your specific interests or expertise, you ignore it and important information can be missed," Mr. Spitler says. "If you have a collaborative group, the right message will get sent to that group and it won't get lost in all the noise." Continuous learning tools for staff members — how ASCs can stay ahead of the curve: ShareFire As Gulf Coast Surgical Partners prepares for an Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care reaccredidation survey in the coming months, the surgery center is in the process of implementing ShareFire, an interactive knowledge-sharing center to keep all staff members on the same page with various informal and formal training and protocols. Currently, Gulf Coast Surgical Partners is tracking staff development on paper, which can lead to human errors such as forgetting to obtain a staff signature or failing to ensure a staff member fulfilled all necessary training requirements for his or her position. "With as much training and in-services as we do, it is difficult to track all of that manually," Mr. Brown says. "ShareFire will allow us to see digitally if we have staff members who did not complete a certain training module." The ability to have all documents and training modules in one application will allow Gulf Coast Surgical Partners to readily meet regulatory standards for reaccredidation. ASCs can upload videos and documents for staff to equip themselves with information on how to prevent "never events" such as patient burns and patient falls. Staff can also learn about various quality measures, including specifications for prophylactic IV antibiotic timing, to ensure patient safety and quality are top priorities for ASC personnel. ShareFire can also be beneficial when onboarding new employees. ASC staff can videotape on-site training sessions and upload those recordings into ShareFire. New staff can view these recordings through the application at a later date. "During the onboarding process, an individual can log on and go through ShareSafe's Knowledge Center. The application has real- time analytics that shows when and how much of the content has been viewed," Mr. Spitler says. "This eliminates the labor piece [of the training process] and makes the training legitimate for the individual." Why ASCs are in the prime position for technological innovation ASCs are in a unique position to leverage ShareSafe, as opposed to larger health systems and hospitals that already have a variety of technological platforms installed. "The ASC market has some distinct advantages in technology opportunities that didn't exist at the time hospitals were installing their EHRs and other legacy IT systems," Mr. Hanson says. To allow surgery centers and other practices to successfully move forward in the increasingly complex healthcare landscape, ShareSafe is continually innovating to bolster its applications and improve ASC operations to drive patient care to optimal levels. "The fusing of these elements in a mobile application is very powerful," Mr. Hanson says. "We believe we are setting a new standard in healthcare innovation." n

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