Shonda Morrow, JD, MS, RN, serves as Associate Vice President of Nursing, Finance and Resource Management for Rush University Medical Center.
On May 19th, Shonda will give a presentation at Becker's Hospital Review 3rd Annual 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 on May 19-21, 2020 in Chicago.
To learn more about the conference and Shonda's session, click here.
Question: What initiative are you most excited about today at your healthcare organization? How will it affect the future of healthcare delivery?
Shonda Morrow: Our organization is actively involved in designing interventions that address the social determinants of healthcare, primarily by providing food surplus to underserved patients/communities. Our organization is the first to develop and collaborate with community centers to package hospital cafeteria food to serve to local food pantries.
Our research tentacles have extended to bedside nursing and bedside nurses are being asked to do scholarly work that excites the clinical nursing profession to seek solutions to ensure safe and quality care at the bedside for patients. Scholarly goals are determined at the beginning of the fiscal year and nurses from leadership to the bedside are presenting research via journals, podium and poster presentations at a national and international level.
Our organization is one of the first hospitals in the city and only academic organization to initiate Family Connects Chicago. Our organization collaborated with the city of Chicago to address a birth equity strategy to support and improve the health and well-being of Chicago families with newborns.
The future of healthcare delivery is in the community whereby healthcare organizations can influence the social and medical health of our populations. Our organization is a role model for other institutions to address social determinants in their communities that may simply begin with providing surplus cafeteria food for their patients and families. Clinical nursing research supports a practice and performance improvement model led by bedside nurses who have a direct impact on the health of our patients and healthy communities starts at birth and spans the life of our populations.
Q: When it comes to innovation, what are some common pitfalls you see healthcare organizations making?
SM: Some common pitfalls that healthcare organizations make: not collectively defining ‘innovation’ and what it means to the organization; not being able to articulate the why the healthcare organization is driven to innovate, not seeking first to understand and lastly, not optimizing and recognizing that innovation requires a deliberate, intentional and aspirational approach to influencing or creating evidence-based practices.
Q: What is the most important lesson you've learned about delivering excellent patient experience?
SM: At the point that the patient crosses the threshold of your hospital, ambulatory clinic or physician’s office, the patient experience begins for that patient. All team members that touch a patient, their words, body language, presentation, and appearance of their surroundings impact the patient’s perception of how safe they should feel and confident that they are receiving quality care. Patients are healthcare savvy and it is imperative to acknowledge three key drivers to patient experience which are nurse communication, care coordination and hospital cleanliness. If the patient is able to identify the interventions that demonstrate these three drivers, you are aligning with your goals to delivering an excellent patient experience.