The Future of Health Care at Palos Community Hospital

Like most industries, health care is constantly evolving. With each scientific discovery and medical breakthrough, the process of delivering quality patient care takes another step into the future and health care providers must adapt to keep pace.

From the very beginning, the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph and the leaders of Palos Community Hospital have had a remarkable vision of the future of health care and the growing needs of the communities of the southwest suburbs. While our new 400,000-square-foot Hospitaller Pavilion is the largest construction project in the hospital’s history, it’s certainly not the first. From enhancing our inpatient facilities to accommodate some of the most advanced treatment protocols, to expanding our outpatient services both within the hospital and through the development of satellite facilities, part of Palos Community Hospital’s mission is to continuously develop the depth and breadth of our services to deliver world-class health care for both the patients of today and tomorrow.

While every facet of our extensive renovation is designed to create a more soothing and therapeutic healing environment for patients and a more functionally efficient facility for physicians and staff, it’s the superior health care services we are able to deliver to every single patient every single day that has helped Palos Community Hospital achieve the distinction by Healthgrades® as one of America’s 50 Best Hospitals for 2012.

Enhancing the Patient Experience

The current health care delivery system in the United States was developed primarily during an era characterized by great leaps in medical education and rapid technological advancements. As a result, Americans today are living longer than ever before, which creates a new dynamic in the way hospitals care for patients. Longevity not only results in more complicated diseases but also more chronic conditions, which need to be managed along with any acute illness or injury. Palos is responding to this need by enhancing both its facilities and services to provide more advanced treatment options and highly specialized care.

The introduction of our new state-of-the-art nurse call system is one example of the ideal environment we have created for our patients. Our new call system will allow patients to communication directly with their nurse. When patients need assistance, standard practice is for them to push a button by the bed, which lights in the hallway outside the patient’s room as well as at the nurses’ station. From there, patients’ requests are relayed to their individual nurse. With Palos’ new nurse call technology, that push of the bedside button will link patients directly to their nurse, allowing each nurse to respond immediately to their patient’s needs. The nurse call technology also will allow nurses to communicate directly with physicians and other health care providers throughout the hospital, so they can receive physician orders and test results while continuing to provide hands-on care.  

Further enhancing the patient care environment is the evolution of the electronic medical record (EMR), where all information captured electronically can be shared by all care providers for that patient. A unique feature of this technology is the Patient Care System (PCS), which allows nurses to document patient care via computer workstations on wheels – or WOWs – that can be wheeled into the patient room. With the WOWs, nurses and physicians are able to review patient charts and nursing assessments, access lab reports, and view radiology images with complete privacy right at the patient bedside.

The EMR offers additional advantages by enhancing multidisciplinary collaboration in caring for the patient. “While the nurse is in the patient room, documenting assessments in the computer, the doctor could be accessing the same patient chart from his or her office or the team work station,” says Rose Demask, vice president of Nursing. “Or the radiologist could be dictating notes on an image, all without having the chart in their hands. In addition to the Nursing department’s use of the PCS system, other disciplines will be able to document patient progress as well, including Physical Therapy and Respiratory Therapy. This is all part of our journey to the full electronic medical record.”

Another aspect of the EMR that Palos has already implemented throughout the hospital is Bedside Medication Verification (BMV). BMV assists nurses in safely and accurately dispensing and administering medications at the patient bedside by simply scanning the patient’s arm band to verify that the correct patient is getting the correct medication, at the correct dose and at the correct time. “This is one more step in assuring patients that they are getting the best possible care in a safe, comfortable and therapeutic environment,” says Informatics Nurse Jen Bondar.

The implementation of these new technologies gives nurses and other health care providers more information and assistive devices right at their fingertips, which help them continue to provide the highest quality care to the patients of Palos Community Hospital.

Building World-Class Services

Technological enhancements at the patient bedside are just the beginning of the state-of-the-art advancements to come. Many of today’s treatment options also can be delivered on an outpatient basis, and those that do require hospitalization have quicker recovery times. Late last year we welcomed the newest member of our surgical team – the da Vinci Robot single-incision surgical system. This cutting-edge technology makes it possible for surgeons to perform an entire open procedure through a single one-inch incision, which will significantly shorten lengths of stay and reduce recovery times by as much as 50 percent.

The da Vinci will be housed in the new Integrated Procedure Services area of the new Hospitaller Pavilion, which includes 14 new advanced surgical suites. The Hospitaller Pavilion also features Palos’ Center for Short Stay Care (CSSC). The CSSC provides a single point of entry for patients and their families, and consolidates 75 percent of our diagnostic and treatment procedures in one state-of-the-art, high-tech facility so tests and procedures can be delivered more timely and efficiently.

Other advancements that complement the 14 new surgical suites is the OR integration system and Real-Time Locator System. OR integration allows the team in the operating room to view any portion of the EMR, including radiology and cardiology images, at any point during a procedure. “Before a patient is scheduled for surgery, they may have had a CT scan or undergone a cardiac catheterization,” explains Trish Heerlein, assistant vice president, Special Care Units. “All of those images and X-rays can be accessed in the operating room so the surgeon never has to leave the patient’s side.”

The Real-Time Locator System (RTLS) is an exciting new technology that will help staff and family members track their loved ones during any type of inpatient or outpatient procedure. Radiofrequency identification placed on the patient will be able to pinpoint their exact location as they pass through designated doorways. As patients move from the CSSC to surgery to post-anesthesia and back to the CSSC, staff and families will be able to follow their progress on a patient tracking monitor. “This really decreases the anxiety level for families because they will know exactly when their loved ones are entering the operating room and exactly when they are coming out,” Heerlein says.

Another innovative feature of the Integrated Procedure Services area is a state-of-the-art Hybrid Room, the only one of its kind in the southwest suburbs. This unique dual-procedure suite is equipped to accommodate both open and closed procedures. With CT scan and ultrasound technologies available in the same space, the Hybrid room becomes a one-stop shop for patients requiring interventional radiological, vascular, cardiac and orthopaedic procedures, thereby reducing surgical time and lowering any inherent risks.

Other treatment advancements being implemented as part of our redevelopment project include a new Intensive Care Unit and decentralized telemetry monitoring throughout the hospital. “With decentralized telemetry, we can monitor patients anywhere within the hospital,” Heerlein says. “The availability of this technology ensures that patients receive optimal care in an optimal location.”

Providing patients with the world-class health care services they need, delivered by the area’s finest medical professionals using the most sophisticated technologies integrated into a soothing environment that promotes healing – that’s what Palos Community Hospital envisions for the future of health care in the southwest suburbs.

“We take our mission of providing the best possible health care for our community very seriously,” says Rose Demask. “We strive to provide the highest quality care in an ideal healing environment. This has always been the underlying focus of Palos Community Hospital. We are building health care for the future.”