BIDMC Launches
iShift Program
To help keep BIDMC at the top of the best Boston workplaces for nursing and other patient care services staff, the medical center is the first area teaching hospital to launch a Web-based scheduling program called iShift@BIDMC.
Kathleen Sussek, R.N., clinical administrative supervisor and one of many staff members across departments working on the program, notes that iShift provides the flexibility and autonomy today’s patient care services staff seek, and a formal way to explore new units or departments. “When managers and scheduling staff complete the core schedule, there may be open shifts – and that’s where iShift comes in,” says Sussek.
Patient care services staff register by completing an online profile of their skills, experience and certifications. Registered staff can log on 24/7 from BIDMC or any computer with internet access to find open shifts for which they qualify and request them.
Explains Sussek, “Per diem staff who don’t have a set schedule can choose shifts. And staff with set schedules have a convenient way to pick up an extra shift.”
Senior Vice President of Clinical Operations Dianne Anderson, R.N., M.S., adds, “iShift is one more way for BIDMC to let staff know how welcome and valued they are while recognizing their need for flexibility.“
A product of Per-Se Technologies (also marketed as PerYourShift) , iShift also makes BIDMC more attractive in a competitive hiring market.
Contract/agency staff who want flexibility can become staff members while maintaining autonomy,” says Sussek.
In January, Farr 5 patient care staff successfully tested the new system. In March, a multi-phase roll-out begins for nursing and other patient care services staff.
Information: BIDMC clinical Web portal> patient care services> iShift@BIDMC
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Clinical Crossroads:
Hearing the Patient’s Voice
BIDMC and the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) have collaborated for 10 years in publishing a series called “Clinical Crossroads” based on monthly conferences in major hospital departments. The conferences, which are open to everyone, focus on common, but difficult decisions patients and their doctors face.
Left: Anthony Lembo, M.D., gastroenterology, shares a patient experience at a recent Clinical Crossroads presentation.
More than 400,000 physicians regularly receive JAMA and the written accounts of Clinical Crossroads, edited by BIDMC staff. Conference attendees have the opportunity to hear firsthand about a wide range of topics, such as falls in the elderly, chronic headaches, depression, decision-making around surgeries, end of life, and more.
“We sometimes lose sight of the patient’s perspective,” says Clinical Crossroads senior editor Tom Delbanco, M.D., Richard and Florence Koplow - James Tullis Professor of General Medicine and Primary Care, Harvard Medical School; division of general medicine and primary care, BIDMC. “Clinical Crossroads brings the patient to the center of clinical care and education. The goal is to move our thinking beyond diagnosis and to focus on how we can best help the individual patient.”
Delbanco and other BIDMC physician editors, Risa Burns, M.D., Eileen Reynolds, M.D., and Amy Ship, M.D., all from general medicine, develop case information that includes videotaped interviews with a patient (who attends the live presentation when possible) and his or her physician. Interviews focus on the patient’s clinical and personal dilemmas associated with care. A national expert on the topic then develops a presentation that addresses the challenges facing patient and physician. After the presentation, the expert and editor develop a manuscript for JAMA.
“Clinical Crossroads makes us aware that patients may interpret their illnesses differently from how we might interpret them,” says Burns. “It provides a forum in which physicians discuss common clinical problems and learn the best answers to the questions that both we and patients face.”
To date, Clinical Crossroads has held more than 100 conferences and has had 95 articles published in JAMA. It is supported, in part, by generous gifts from BIDMC donors, including the Florence and Richard Koplow Charitable Foundation, the Muriel and Norman B. Leventhal Family Foundation, the Sidney R. Rabb Charitable Trust, the Sidney and Esther Rabb Charitable Foundation, and the Jacqueline and Martin J. Shaevel Charitable Trust.
Two staunch supporters are BIDMC Trustee Nancy Cahners and her aunt, Trustee for Life Carol Goldberg. “We were impressed by the way Clinical Crossroads not only gives caregivers a chance to analyze and reflect on complex situations, but by how the write-up of each conference in JAMA conveys the insights gained far and wide,” Cahners says.
For Clinical Crossroads articles and a list of upcoming conferences, see the external Web site, www.bidmc.harvard.edu > for patients > health information, or the BIDMC internal clinical portal > references.
- Lori Howley