Category: St. Joseph Health Systems

Guiding Principle 1:  Make Transportation Resources Known to Me and Easy to Understand  

Insights:

Improve Marketing	Improve Simplicity	Make Resources known to SJHS Staff and Patients	Make Resources Bilingual
“There is not enough marketing for the resources available and when people find they have a problem they often don’t know where to look for a solution” Obi Madukoma, Care Coordinator Population Health On Lack of Technology to research resources :“Most of my clients do not even have cell phones and if they do they are flip phones” – Kaley Kubiac, Transportation Coordinator Riverbend.	Due to Medicaid restrictions, A lot of the burden to schedule transportation sits on the patient who might be unable to do so or not know how to do it. Obi Madukoma, Care Coordinator Population Health	“ People and staff in house don’t know about the resources. There is a communication gap” Obi Madukoma, Care Coordinator Population Health,	“Some inefficiencies arise when there is a language barrier between the patients and the center’s workers.” Erik,  Volunteer Receptionist at the Sister Maura Brannick Health Center

Guiding Principle 2 : Make Transportation Services Flexible 

Insights:

Make it flexible as appointments often run behind schedule	Make it flexible in case I have to bring children with me	Make it flexible in case I have to pick up medication or other necessities on the way home	Have late night and weekend hours
“Scheduling one single ride might take 7 separate phone calls and conversations” Kaley Kubiak, Riverbend Transportation Services	“I usually walk, which is more difficult carrying 3 kids and I’m 9-months pregnant.” Kate, client at Mishawaka Medical Center “All my kids go to different schools…every day is different.” Laura, client at SJHS Mishawaka Medical Center’s Pediatrics	“While REAL Services does transport patients, our transportation services operate within a very specific time frame which leaves some patients without transportation help.” Julie, Director of Client Services at REAL Services, Inc	In a phone interview with Michelle Peters, Director of Community Health and Wellbeing for St Joseph’s Health Systems, she mentioned that South Bend transpo lacks in weekend and late night routes.  The current routes also do not go to all of the SJHS facilities.

 

Guiding Principle 3 : Make it time efficient and Cost Efficient 

 

Make it cost efficient for Patient	Make it cost efficient for Organization	Make it as time efficient as possible
“Uber requires a credit card. I don’t have a credit card” -Kate, client at Mishawaka Medical Center “I think we spend around $550-600 on transportation a month” -Laura, client at SJHS Mishawaka Medical Center’s Pediatrics	“Patient no-shows can be very costly..up to $300” –Geoff Zimpelman, Population Health “Volunteers could do more to assist transportation” -Rob, SJHS Volunteer	“I’ve been waiting one hour for the Medicaid shuttle” -Kate, client at Mishawaka Medical Center “1.5 hour bus ride is usually around a 20 minute drive” -Geoff Zimpelman, Population Health

 

Guiding Principle 4 : Create continuity for patient transportation within all medical offices and facilities 

Insights:

Improve communication between all offices	Find one company, like uber, that will be certified by medicaid throughout all regions	Lessen criteria to increase amount of people who can utilize services
“Nothing is centralized. Each clinic and office does different things and they don’t work together on things such as transportation” –Obi Madukoma, Care Coordinator Population Health	“Medicaid will cover transportation costs for its patients, but this can get complicated because only certain cab companies are certified to pick up patients. Depending on where you live, there may not be a viable cab company to use.” -Ranae, Receptionist at Family Medical Office	“Various organizations will provide transportation for patients, but each organization will only deal with people who meet specific criteria.” -Geoff Zimpelman, Population Health

 

Guiding Principle 5 : Solution needs to work on a large scale and handle large influx of volume

Insights:

Use Resources Efficiently	Standardize Method of Transportation	Frequent and Flexible
“With many different services currently being offered, it is important for SJHS to make sure that certain resources are not being unnecessarily duplicated.”   Geoff Zimpelman, Population Health	“A transportation service that provides ‘door-to-door’ transportation would work best to accommodate all kinds of patients with varying levels of functionality.” Julie, Director of Client Services at REAL Services, Inc	“Transportation must be able to accommodate different patient’s schedules and availability for doctor appointments.” – Erik,  Volunteer Receptionist at the Sister Maura Brannick Health Center

 

1. My friend forgot the cap to her camera lens so she used a hair tie and a glass cleaner sheet in order to cover the lens.

2. I did not have a stand or desk to charge my computer, so I used the extra chair in my room to improvise.

3. A friend of mine did not have a big enough hanger in order to dry her rug, so she used the apartment balcony instead.

 

1. I placed my phone against a stack of papers and folders so I was able to watch videos on my phone.

2. I use a cup so that my toothbrush stays straight up and the brush part does not touch the counter.

3. I use a small plastic bag as a liner because my trash can does not have one.

Did not have tape so placed band-aid over a Flonase Cap so that the cap would remain on the nose spray.

Hung bathing suit on upper shower rack so that it would dry without getting other objects/surfaces wet.

Wrapped moisturizer in a plastic bag in addition to closing the moisturizing nozzle to reduce the risk of moisturizer getting on other clothes in a suitcase while traveling.

My team met with Michelle Peters  (the Community Benefit Ministry Officer and Director Community Health and Well-being for Saint Joseph Health System) on Gallery Day. We walked her through the progress that we have made so far with our SJHS project by outlining my team’s research, interviews, immersions, and other enthnographies.  Michelle has greatly aided us in our SJHS project to help patients receive better transportation to their respective doctors appointments. We discussed the current problem with patient transport and potential ways to fix it.  Proper funding, organization, and patient compliance were three main factors involved in our project that Michelle and our team spent time discussing.

Main Takeaways:

• Issues with transportation is costing the Saint Joseph Medical Center a lot of inconveniences and financial losses.
• There are certain services that are currently help alleviate this issue of patient transportation but funding can be unorganized and the duplication of resources can be a problem.
• Michelle believes that the solution to this issue will need to involve a partnership between SJHS and  another transportation company or agency.
• Our team will look to interview some more patients and case managers to gain a better insight into the issue from a patient’s perspective.

 

 

While on spring break and cancun, my friend nick took his sunscreen out at the pool and had taped a red solo cup shot glass to the top of the spray sunscreen to prevent it from leaking and spraying in his bag when he traveled and checked them. He said he didn’t trust the twist top

 

One of my roommate’s televisions was not high enough for her to see when she was laying in bed so she propped it up on printer paper to make it taller so she could see.

 

A friends freezer kept popping open and their food would spoil as it would not remain sealed and cold. They now use a duct tape latch to keep it closed when not in use.

 

 

 

My other roommate didn’t have a place to dry her bathing suits after coming back from break and hand washing them. She decided to use her shower curtain rod as a drying rack and placed a bath towel on the floor to catch the dripping water

Great job with the diversity of immersions and interviews team!  There are so many interesting takeaways from your research thus far.  A few areas that stood out to me:

• 42,500 no shows/year!!!  How much does this cost?  It seems like you could make a case that it would be less expensive to take doctor to the patient?  Or have their own “St. Joe Uber fleet” that picks people up?  Let’s challenge the orthodoxies!
• If Medicaid is always late with getting patients to appointments, or taxis, or whomever, what incentives would make patients arrive early?  Say an hour before the appointment?
• Kids seem like a reoccurring challenge.  Lugging them along or finding child care.
• There appears to be a perception that buses are not safe or clean.  Is this true?  What can be done about this?
• Uber is expensive and prohibitive to the many in this population without smart phones or credit cards.

Excellent work team!

Our team, the Hospital Helpers, updated Michelle Peters through a visual presentation of the information we gathered and analyzed thus far.

Main Takeaways

• Allowed a chance for team members for update each other on the research and analysis they gathered in a cohesive manner
• Michelle’s presence allowed for immediate comments and feedback
  • Suggested we speak with ER workers and patients
• The process of creating our visual presentation was just as important as the finished product itself – pushed team to analyze our individual data and relate everything back to the core question
• Unfortunately, we were short on time
• After Gallery Day, our team members and I were able to begin pitching different realistic solutions to the problem at hand
  • Relations with Uber
  • Legal issues surrounding possible shuttles
  • Medicaid