Family members undergoing surgery can be nerve-wracking enough, but add a global pandemic when visitors are restricted in hospitals, and the stress can be taken to new heights.
Lakewood Ranch Medical Center in Manatee County wants to alleviate that stress after forming a partnership with an Orlando-based tech company.
The hospital partnered with EASE Applications, a cloud-based communication platform that stands for "electronic access to surgical events." The application allows patients' family members to communicate with medical personnel for updates as they prep for, undergo and recover from surgery.
"It's a really stressful time for families and even for families in the waiting room, if they don't know what's going on," said Kimberly Meadows, clinical leader for surgical services at Lakewood Ranch Medical. "This allows them to get more real-time updates in a secure HIPAA-compliant way to alleviate some stress during surgery."
The messaging is all done through the EASE app, which is encrypted and only keeps messages for 60 seconds once the family member receives the update.
"It's kind of like Snapchat for health care," Meadows said. "Nothing is stored on their phone, and we don't send anything personal over the messages — it's more of a timeline update."
The app also provides secure two-way videoconferencing between a patient's family and medical care team.
While the partnership with EASE was put in motion before the pandemic began, now that family members have to take extra precautions or avoid the hospital altogether, communication on the app is that much more important.
"It couldn’t have come at a better time; going live with this, with families not being able to be here," Meadows said. "With our patients, they're alone and the family members are waiting to hear something. This allows them to keep in touch with them when they can't be in the building. They can get messages if they're in our parking lot or if they're across the country."
While Meadows did not know financial details or terms to the agreement, EASE was recently acquired by San Jose-based Vocera Communications Inc. (NYSE: VCRA). Vocera is a clinical communications and workflow services provider.
This is the latest in a recent innovation push at Lakewood Ranch Medical Center.
"We're always looking for things to make things better for patients," Meadows said. "We're always looking for the next great way to help deliver safer, better patient care and a lot of time tech is involved in that."
