innovations in health care
Four T’s Translate to Exceptional Patient Experience at UMass Memorial Eye Center Shlomit Schaal, MD, PhD
The UMass Memorial Eye Center has transformed itself with technology and a toprated team that keeps its focus on providing patient care in a timely manner. An exceptional patient experience is the number one goal of every member of the UMass Memorial Eye Center team. Each member of the department’s talented and like-minded caregivers – from front-line office staff and technicians to physicians and scientists – were hand-picked for the expertise they bring to bear for our patients. A positive patient experience is what drives every step of the decision making at the Eye Center with a focus on The Four T’s: Team, Time, Technology and Transformation. Team: As we began our department’s transformation in 2016, the first goal was to engineer a dynamic team of caregivers. Every new and existing team member knows that every member of the team is critical to the patient and responsible for the patient outcome. Everyone is empowered to share their voice and ideas to care for our patients. We’re always looking for ways to improve and it takes every team member to make those changes. In the most recent caregiver and physician engagement surveys, the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences received the highest scores throughout the system, which is credited to the fact that everyone on the team knows that they can contribute and that their ideas are listened to and valued. This work has resulted in Eye Center being named as “Innovator of the Year” in 2017 and has been a “Sweet 16 Innovators” finalist every year since.
8 | Worcester Medicine January/February 2020
Time: We understand that time is the most valuable thing to us as human beings. We can’t make more time, but we can make sure we and our patients aren’t wasting it. With a goal of limiting patients’ wait time to no more than five minutes in any area of the clinic, the Eye Center is consistently studying and improving patient flow to reduce wait times. Whether it is a patient who needs to be seen urgently or a referring physician who needs to send a patient to our clinic, time is precious to all of us. In addition to creating walk-in clinics, the Eye Center created specialized clinics that allow physicians to increase the number of patients they’re able to see by streamlining care and focusing on one service for an entire session. A stellar example is the Diabetic Eye Disease Screening Clinic, which increased patient preventative diabetic eye care from 22% to 95% since 2017. Technology: Since 2016, the Eye Center has upgraded 100% of its equipment. Knowing that the quality of eye care relies on our ability to recognize patterns in the eye, the level of care we’re able to provide is dependent on having the latest technology. The UMass Memorial Eye Center has new technology at all clinics, including a new wide-field imaging machine. The team is performing some fascinating research in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and its role in predicting illnesses such as high blood pressure, stroke, multiple sclerosis (MS), diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration and sleep apnea. All equipment in the eye operating rooms has been replaced with new technology so all surgeons can use the latest and most advanced surgical techniques in caring for patients. Transformation: The shift in culture at the Eye Center is the primary factor behind the clinic’s tremendous transformation. We’re continuously progressing and aligning ourselves to the culture and strategic goals of the organization. As a proponent
