Thursday, September 26, 2019
Healthcare communications company Mobile Heartbeat® has announced a collaborative partnership with Magnet Recognized Eisenhower Health of Rancho Mirage, California. The aim of the partnership has been to develop a more comprehensive communication network, specifically tailored to emergency and disaster response situations. The collaboration comes following an active shooter incident on the Eisenhower Health campus in March 2019.
After the incident, Mobile Heartbeat’s Clinical Optimization Team compiled a report containing communication data analytics from the units that were affected. Working with Eisenhower’s Annette Brown, Chief Nursing Informatics Officer, and Tim Beringer, Director, Employee Health and Safety, Security and Emergency Management, the Mobile Heartbeat team provided recommendations for improving the existing processes and communication structure.
Suggested improvements included an enterprise-scale rollout of MH-CURE, which will allow Eisenhower’s security team to send more timely hospital-wide updates; ad-hoc contact groups and dynamic roles that will allow for quicker and easier deployment of the incident command center; and a stronger emphasis on bi-directional communication across the entire continuum, which will allow staff at the point of care to communicate critically important information with leadership.
“Hospitals need to understand that communication is critical to inform employees, patients, everyone about what is happening during a critical situation,” said Ann Mostofi, Vice President, Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer, Eisenhower Health. “We have found that Mobile Heartbeat can be that source of inside ‘truth,’ with almost instantaneous communication about what is really happening.”
As these recommendations are implemented across Eisenhower’s campus, the Emergency Management Team is optimistic that MH-CURE will help them support the safety and security of staff, patients and visitors in the event of an emergency or disaster.
“It’s been really great working with the Mobile Heartbeat team,” Beringer said. “I have a lot more confidence that our leaders are comfortable in the role of incident commander, and they would be able to initiate our hospital incident command and communicate with our staff appropriately.”
