CASE STUDY: TORONTO EAST GENERAL HOSPITAL. Toronto East General Hospital leverages SeamlessMD s patient engagement solution to improve outcomes

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Reginald Carpenter
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1 CASE STUDY: TORONTO EAST GENERAL HOSPITAL Toronto East General Hospital leverages SeamlessMD s patient engagement solution to improve outcomes

Introduction The Backstory Toronto East General Hospital (TEGH) is an urban, 400-bed community teaching hospital in Toronto, Canada, providing comprehensive care to a diverse population of 400,000.

2 Introduction The Backstory Toronto East General Hospital (TEGH) is an urban, 400-bed community teaching hospital in Toronto, Canada, providing comprehensive care to a diverse population of 400,000. Annually, TEGH admits 20,000 acute care inpatients, performs 15,000 surgical cases and provide service to over 200,000 outpatients. The hospital is known for establishing a Level 1 Centre of Excellence for Thoracic Surgery in 2008, which provides thoracic surgery care to patients across Toronto and further north to Barrie. Through its Center of Excellence, TEGH partners with Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, North York General Hospital and Royal Victoria Hospital so that all patients for those hospitals are brought to TEGH for their surgery and post-op care. Dr. Carmine Simone, the Chief of Surgery of TEGH, leads a multi-disciplinary team, including 3 full-time thoracic surgeons, to provide 24/7 care to these patients and their communities. This new collaboration allowed Dr. Simone s team to support a higher volume of cases at over 600 thoracic procedures a year. Dr. Carmine Simone Chief of Surgery, Toronto East General I love SeamlessMD. It acts like front-line customer relations to answer questions that the patient has. This has reduced a lot of avoidable calls. Patients love SeamlessMD and feel it provides a more personal connection with me. They feel more connected to their instructions, and they self-manage much better than before 2

3 The Challenge Despite providing more coordinated care as a Level 1 Centre, Dr. Simone still found his patients facing difficulties adhering to their instructions and staying engaged in the process between visits. He found that patients were overwhelmed with all the instructions they had to remember for preparing for major cancer surgery and recovering afterwards. He realized verbal and written instructions are often complicated and difficult for patients to understand. Reviewing his hospital s data, Dr. Simone found that during the previous 3 months their thoracic surgery program had 6 procedures cancelled due to patients failing to stop medication. Their program also experienced a significant number of unnecessary post-op phone calls. Dr. Simone wondered whether recent advances in smartphone, tablet and computer technology could be used to better educate and engage his patients throughout their complicated journey through surgery. But many of his thoracic surgery patients are older would they use a technology solution? As he saw his patients in clinic using smartphones and tablets, Dr. Simone realized even older patients were becoming tech-savvy. A 2014 report by Deloitte revealed that smartphone penetration in the U.S will increase to over 80% and for those who are 65+ it will pass 50% by the end of Another report by Accenture revealed that a staggering 90% of patients want online access to health information and education to help manage conditions (see graphic below). 90% Of patients want online access to heath information and education to help manage conditions Reminders The majority of patients want to receive digital reminders for preventative or follow up care: 88% Appointments The majority of patients want to book, change or cancel appointments through digital channels: Website 72% Education The majority of patients want online access to health information to help manage conditions: Mobile 90% Source: The Accenture Connected Health Pulse Survey, 3

4 The Solution TEGH partnered with SeamlessMD to become the first hospital in North America to provide a hospital-branded, patient engagement program for Thoracic Surgery on smartphones, tablets and computers. The program guided patients through pre-op preparation and post-op recovery, and included: Electronic reminders for both patients & caregivers Interactive education (illustrations, videos, etc.) Symptom tracking Automated feedback during recovery Electronic data collection for patient satisfaction In addition, TEGH staff had access to a their own real-time analytics dashboard to track patient progress and analyze data, such as patient satisfaction, real time. SeamlessMD also worked closely with TEGH staff to ensure seamless integration of the program into the clinical workflow. THE TRIAL 35 caregivers 77 patients CONSENT FOR SURGERY PRE-OP CLINIC VISIT SURGERY & HOSPITALIZATION POST-OP FOLLOW UP VISIT A view of the custom solution created by SeamlessMD for TEGH s Thoracics Department 4

The Results At the end of a pilot period, Toronto East General Hospital saw numerous benefits from implementing SeamlessMD for Thoracic Surgery.

5 The Results At the end of a pilot period, Toronto East General Hospital saw numerous benefits from implementing SeamlessMD for Thoracic Surgery. The results showed a dramatic reduction in same-day surgery cancellations, high patient satisfaction and better collection of patient satisfaction data. BEFORE AFTER 6 0 cancellations in 3 months cancellations in 11 months with SeamlessMD of patients and caregivers found SeamlessMD useful & would use it again Paul Marks Patient of Dr. Simone s The app has many benefits. The reminders during pre-op were very helpful. The postop experience I think is even better. The daily check-in gave me some confidence that everything was going well, and it made me more cognizant and aware of what I needed to do. I wouldn t be here if it wasn t for them (SeamlessMD). BENEFITS TO PATIENT More engaged in self-management Less anxiety and fear about surgery Patients who live far away feel more connected to the healthcare team Families and caregivers are integrated into circle of care 5

6 The Results BENEFITS TO SURGEON Reduction in surgery cancellations Patients more prepared before surgery Reduction in unnecessary phone calls Patients more engaged in recovery BENEFITS TO ADMINISTRATORS Reduction in phone calls & ER visits Realtime analytics dashboard for quality improvement Faster collection of patient satisfaction data About SeamlessMD SeamlessMD provides an enterprise healthcare platform for hospitals, surgery centers and clinics to deliver patient engagement, remote monitoring and analytics across surgical episodes of care. Available on smartphones, tablets and computers, our platform guides patients through pre-op and post-op care plans by delivering timely reminders, tracking patient-reported outcomes and monitoring for signs of complications. We leverage this data to help providers monitor patients remotely and measure and improve patient adherence, outcomes and satisfaction. Contact us to discuss your program goals and evaluate your business case. Our solutions team will demonstrate how to enhance your patient experience, improve outcomes and lower costs. Copyright 2015 Seamless Mobile Health, Inc. All rights reserved. Various trademarks held by their respective owners. Contact us for a demo: info@seamless.md 6

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