Abstract
Background:
Medical student advocates (MSAs) have located and vetted more than 600 community resources for vulnerable patient populations and listed them on a Wikipedia page. Residents were disconnected from these efforts and found it challenging to efficiently provide resource information at the bedside. The Main Line Heath (MLH) System Strategic Plan stresses the importance of improving the health of the community and to “seek, identify and ameliorate disparities in care.” Our aim was to provide a smartphone app to residents to facilitate referrals of patients to community services at the bedside and thereby address the strategic plan mandate.
Methods:
Residents and MSAs attended a GME-sponsored dinner to learn about patient and provider needs and the resources identified on the MSA Wikipedia page. Categories include food, transportation, utilities, child care, job training, education, and legal services. Residents were asked to complete an anonymous questionnaire to assess their knowledge and opinions about linking patients to community resources and to upload a link to the Wikipedia page to their smartphones. GME collaborated with the Texas A&M School for Public Health to enlist MLH as a sponsor for the MyHealthFinder app.
Results:
Of the residents who participated in the survey, 55% said that they always/often discuss nonclinical needs with their patients, while 34% said that they occasionally do, 9% said seldom, and 2% said never. When asked what the resident’s role should be in addressing nonclinical needs, 77% said that they should be involved, 14% said that they should not be involved, and 9% acknowledged time as a barrier to involvement. Residents in internal medicine and family medicine recognize and affirm their desire to play a role in properly and efficiently linking their patients with appropriate community resources. Residents also want to track whether resources are utilized.
Conclusion:
Supplying a smartphone app to search for community resources at the bedside was received enthusiastically by residents and energized the MSAs’ efforts to vet resources.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN – A Community Service App to Link Patients With Needed Resources.
| Vision Statement | Main Line Health System, along with the Department of GME, will reduce disparities in health by affording individuals access to primary care and subspecialty care and linking them with community resources to live a better quality life for our community. |
| Team Objectives | Our objectives were as follows:
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| Success Factors | The most successful part of our work was the integration and collaboration between GME and the administration of Main Line Health System as we partnered to bring this smartphone app into working form. We were inspired by the resources that our organization was willing to put into reviewing the legal contract with the creators of the smartphone app, as well as the $10,000 to become a sponsor of the app along with the Texas A&M School of Public Health. |
| Barriers | The largest barrier was creating an app that our legal team and our IT team at Main Line Health System would support. We worked to overcome this challenge by teaming with the Texas A&M School of Public Health that had already created a similar app for cancer patients. We collaborated with them to populate resources in our community on their smartphone app. |
| Lessons Learned | The single most important piece of advice to provide another team embarking on a similar initiative is to include your legal and IT departments early if contracts with outside organizations might be required rather than getting approval when you have a prototype pilot ready. Nowadays, hospitals are particularly conservative when it comes to HIPAA-protected information and having complicated and thorough contracts in place before proceeding. |