Equipi-Design Methods Project and Business Opportunities -Sharing my Story

EQUIPI Comprehensive equipment and rental system for Acute and Sub-Acute Design Methods-Project and Business Opportunities-Sharing My Story Cindy Eason- Fall 2015 5221x1-Research Evidence and Findings-Independent Research December 20, 2015 cynthialynneason@gmail.com

Trauma/Surgery Intensive care Nursing -Google Images

Sharing my Story and Experiences-From Personal Consequence to Equipi The goal of creating Equipi begins with sharing my story of how this concept was formed. The crux of Equipi is to provide a fluid process for ordering equipment for patient care, for the safely of nurses and patients. Nurses are some of the most injured workers according to the 2013 Bureau of Labor Statistics findings, and I am one of those injured nurses. After 20 years of nursing to include trauma intensive care nursing in a Level one trauma center, I have sustained injuries that could have been prevented if more equipment aids were in place to lessen the strain used while providing patient care. The new Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommendations are a start to break this culture and prevent nursing injury by recommending safer work practices and equipment for better outcomes for nurses providing patient care. Another goal of Equipi is to provide equipment needed for bariatric and geriatric patients during their sub-acute and acute stays. The healthcare system does not have a fluid integrated system to aid nurses in obtaining equipment for patient care and for lifting and transport.

Throughout many interviews and research I have discovered pain points where to obtain equipment for care take weeks and encountered a very cumbersome process whilst delivering patient care. Implementing Equipi will aid the current system by providing fluid movement and access to equipment for nurses to lift and transfer patient according to the OSHA recommendation and needed equipment for certain geriatric and bariatric populations. The current status quo entails facilities who place more of their resources for patient care, and decreased spending for nursing safety, as the well being of the staff is not a priority. There are no concrete laws and regulations implemented to date to prevent such injuries to healthcare staff and the goal of this app is to create more awareness to the high and debilitating incidence of injury sustained by nurses simply doing their jobs of caring for patients. The results of this design research has created the business opportunity of an app creation, which facilitates the availability of equipment for patient care.

Methods of Research Techniques ❏

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Content Analysis-Data gathered for this research inquiry were from the internet from various federal government sites with descriptive data statistics listing the frequency of injury of healthcare staff and the type of injury.

Appreciative Inquiry- I interviewed numerous nurses and healthcare professionals and limited equipment suppliers gathering information to support my decisions.

Observation-The observation on my part is I have lived nursing and related processes for 20 years, and have an extensive knowledge of how the system works and what the current needs are.

Brainstorming-Had brainstorming workshop on Dec 1, 2015, documented in deliverable on Dec 6th, 2015. This workshop was interesting to discover aspects around regulation, laws, and needs for the app I have not previously thought of.

Cognitive Walkthrough(Mental Model Elicitation)-This design process was completed by a cognitive walkthrough via a infographic in deliverable presented on Dec 6th, 2015, this infographic chronicles the process one would experience using this proposed app.

Expert Interviews-Interviews with experts in healthcare, where all exceeded 15 years of nursing or clinical experience.

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Heuristics-Researched the viability of this concept with interviews with experts and drew conclusions from my on extensive experience the viability of this concept.

Surveys-Distributed surveys to Social Media FaceBook and Linked targeting nurses and healthcare professionals asking questions regarding equipment availability and use in subacute and acute settings.

Needs Assessment-With my current expert knowledge of healthcare and its needs I came to conclusions of what the systems needs to solve current problems.

Prototyping-A detailed proposal app prototype was created to solve this problem of equipment availability to the healthcare system.

Questionnaires-Various interviews on the phone and in person, questionnaires were presented online to obtain information.

Storytelling-During interactions, interviews and workshops we all shared our stories and nursing experiences gaining an empathetic view of the currents needs.

Think Aloud-During sessions deep thought was verbalized to think through the processes one experiences in the current process and process after the app is implemented.

Video-Videos of interview and presentation of the concepts proposed of an expert and undergraduate finance class.

Resources for funding

The resources I have available for this project are some savings, and I will mostly depend on loans and possibly money obtained via grant or investors. The process of developing this project will take some time to write the application. The cost of hiring a software developer and lawyers fees to license the software and rights to any royalties, finding a location for operations and maintenance, and staff to implement this application. All of the listed implementation and startup costs will be needed to start this project in the first year. Advertising costs will be paramount to this project to introduce this product to the healthcare industry and medical equipment suppliers to launch this product and use. This will include the aid of the appropriate advertising agency who specializes in healthcare advertising for print media and online presence.

Presentation Audience The audience for this product will be nurses and administration staff, and medical equipment suppliers as this app will facilitate processes between suppliers and users of medical equipment. The advantage of the medical equipment providers large or small to provide more exposure outside of the 30 mile radius and increase business to a wider range of clients and users of their service. One aspect of this application that will have to be meticulously maintained to ensure equipment availability, delivery, and maintenance of products per the app. This application could also aid in the user’s inventory and tracking data that will be helpful for their business and aid in growth and expansion proving this product to be beneficial to their business.

The advantage of using this app for facilities is to get the equipment efficiently without delays and interruptions of length of stay and maintain compliance for a safer work environment recommended

by OSHA.

Conclusions To conclude this research design inquiry to explore the challenges in healthcare, and possible innovation opportunities, one has to realize the paramount problems to the existing system and culture are fixed, and for many decades resistant to change. The reality in healthcare today is hospitals have been reluctant to change due to the culture of healthcare industry’s to “do no harm” to patients, and decreases in hospital budgeting. These aspects in healthcare have left no room to allow for more safety measures and processes for healthcare workers to safely transport and lift patients. These aspects and realities of healthcare have created innovation opportunities.

The availability of equipment in the healthcare system for lifts and transports will decrease the incidence of injury with correct use. Hospitals must be held accountable and provide a safer work environment for workers, but the current system has not mandated an intervention until now by OSHA to protect the worker. Not only has this new recommendation from OSHA created new innovation opportunities.

Another innovation opportunity is the fact increasing safety equipment will positively impact decreased length of stay for all levels of healthcare, from the acute to post acute settings. This proposal offers dual opportunity and reasons to implement this system called Equipi. Equipi entails an application for the rental or option to buy healthcare lifting and transfer equipment for hospital workers.

References: Bureau of Labor Statistics. PDF table:Highest rates for total cases-Injuries and Illnesses-2013. Available at :bls.gov./lif/oshsum.htn. Accessed September 13, 2015.

Centers for Disease Control Workplace. Safety and Health Topics-Safety Patient Handling. Available at cdc.gov/micsh/topics/safepatient/. Accessed September 13, 2015.

Google Images. Available at google.com. Accessed September October, and November 2015.

Luck, Rachael. “Design Research: Past, Present and Future.” Design Research Quarterly. September 2006. pp 19-20. Available at Design Research Quarterly Archives. drsq.org. Accessed September 9, 2015.

Nelson, Audrey PhD RN et al. “Myths and Facts About Back Injuries in Nursing.” American Journal of Nursing. February 2003. Volume 103. Issue 2.pp 32-40. Accessed September 13, 2015.

Zwerding, David. “Hospitals Fail to Protect Nursing Staff from Becoming Patients.” National Public Radio Website. 2015. Available at npr. org/2015/02/04/382639199/hospitals-fail-to-protect-staff. Accessed September 13, 2014.

Zwerding, David. “OSHA Launches Program to Protect Nursing Employees.” NPR Website. Available at npr.org/sections/the twoway/2015/06/24/417186384/osha-launches-program-to-protect-nursing-employees. Accessed June, September, October 2015.

References: Lambert,Lynda,RN. “Nurses: You’ve Been LIED to about your Back and Body Mechanics.” Available at allnurses.com/general-nursingdiscussion/nurses-you-ve-980933.html. Accessed October and November 2015.

Martin, Bella and Hanington,Bruce. Universal Methods of Design. Rockport Publishers. 2012.

Tufte,Edward R. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. 2nd Edition. Graphics Press.LLC .2001.

United States Department of Labor. Guidelines for Nursing Homes. Available https://www.osha.gov/ergonomics/guidelines/nursinghome/final_nh_guidelines.html. Accessed October 2015.

Design Research Techniques www.designreserchtechniques.com

Intensive care NursingGoogle images

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Appendix DOODLES,VARIOUS NOTES, PHOTOS, WORKSHOP

Screen shot of posts to Linkedin groups RN(Registered Nurse) Network with 107,312 members, American Nurses Association with 65,538 members, American Association of Managed Care with 1,446 members, Case Managers USA with 3003 members, Critical Care Nursing with 10,304 members and posting Typeform surveys to FaceBook.

Email Communication and Google Doc links to documentation/communication with Undergrad Finance Class students Brooks Barger, Maurice Dusault, Megan Jana, Mary Regagazino: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vc4cyOs8-YUQEaMyVPYr23GZ9dknXMz8HXTiicV53A/edit https://docs.google. com/document/d/1NnRLhLYBQKoYeK4H6n2zME93pgTfZia9Mc9A92vJGNI/edi t

https://docs.google. com/document/d/1VbIy1h5HlUGgw0H5NzvGJPTX57TBKngBvvjBkBK56Uo/ edit#

Link to video presentation to Finance Class:

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/recent

Video of second interview with Becky Hiott Proctor BS, MS:

Thank You!