Karin Reese, RN, MS, serves as Chief Nursing Officer at Marin General Hospital.
On May 4th, Karin will serve on the panel "Using Remote Patient Monitoring and Telehealth to Improve Quality" at Becker's Health IT + Clinical Leadership + Pharmacy conference. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place May 2-4, 2019 in Chicago.
To learn more about the conference and Karin's session, click here.
Question: What one strategic initiative will demand the most of your time and energy in 2019?
Karin Reese: We are an independent, 235-bed district community hospital serving a relatively small community. And yet we have been able to launch bold new initiatives that will significantly benefit our patient population. We’ve formed robust partnerships with Academic Medical Centers like Stanford and UCSF and with Physician’s Groups to ensure that our patients have access to advanced treatments and expertise without leaving Marin. One strategic initiative that we are working on is the continued rollout of our new Virtual Care Provider Solution. There is tremendous opportunity to provide broader coverage for our patients without sacrificing the personalized care we pride ourselves on. The Virtual Care solution integrates our EMR, Imaging systems, educational content, and virtual provider with our care team. The continued rollout will give our patients 24/7 access to a tele-professional. Together with Banyan Medical Systems, Marin General Hospital will be delivering the virtual platform to our current facility in the Cardiac and Surgical Units. In 2020, we will extend the service to our Medical/Surgical Care unit.
Q: Healthcare takes a lot of heat for not innovating quickly. What's your take on this?
KR: I think it’s true. If you look at the past couple of decades, the processes and technologies for delivering care haven’t really changed much. There is caution with new innovations and technologies because patient lives are at stake. We have a responsibility to our patients, and we have to be careful what we put in place. You have to worry about the patient’s safety, both physically and emotionally. With new technologies, you may not see the results right away and you may be hesitant to adopt them in your hospital. Regulations are another factor in delaying innovation. These regulations were crafted to promote caution and deliberation when it comes to new technologies.
Some great innovations have taken hold, such as the Electronic Medical Record (EMR). This helps with data analytics and patient information. But these technologies need to be effective for both our staff and patients. There can be negatives with new technologies that don’t incorporate all the end users. For example, when a nurse stands in front of a screen updating an EMR, it takes away from face time with the patient. There are innovations available right now that affect just the patient, just the nurses, or just the hospitals. Technology and innovation need to affect the entire care continuum. This is why Marin chose to partner with Banyan Medical Systems.
Q: Can you share some praise with us about people you work with? What does greatness look like to you when it comes to your team?
KR: If you are going to be an early innovator with technology, you need to partner with someone you can trust. I give high praise to my Banyan partners for creating and innovating this technology. Marin is on onboard with Banyan in the journey to transform healthcare. We want to make better care a way of life. Greatness comes from our teams working collaboratively together to solve problems and ensure that our patients are safe, educated, connected and engaged in the care process.