HJNO Jul/Aug 2019

Healthcare Journal of NEW ORLEANS I  JUL / AUG 2019 23 virtual check-ups from a dedicated care team from the comfort of their own home. It is called Ochsner Digital Medicine and it works; we help patients get and stay in control of their health conveniently. We now have more than 6,000 patients participat- ing in our hypertension and diabetes pro- grams, and they love it. We are expanding the program to: 1. Add new conditions – We are testing Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Dis- ease (COPD) now, and will add others. 2. Serve more patients – We are now working with payors and employers to offer the program to their members and employees. Can you explain operationally how ideas and technology are implemented in such a large organization like Ochsner? Ochsner has always been a place where innovation is valued and embraced. It is part of our DNA and our mission. As we have increased our use of technology over the last several years, we have developed numerous strategies and resources to accelerate its adoption and integration into everyday operations. One way we do that is making sure there is an efficient workflow for our providers and care teams; technol- ogy should make their jobs easier and their experience better. For our digital health innovations, we followed the diffusion of innovationmodel, where we rolled new pro- grams out to a group of innovators and early adopters first. This allowed us to get feed- back and learn from these users, and then iterate and refine the product, before rolling it out broadly, and that has worked well. We are now live with digital health programs across the system. We also created sup- ports to accelerate the use of digital tools by our patients, including the O Bar, which is a really cool place located in several of our clinics that is staffed by a tech genius who can help patients engage with new health and wellness technology and tools. How are results measured? The results of most of our initiatives can be measured against the quadruple aim of healthcare—improving health out- comes, reducing costs, and improving the experience for both patients and caregiv- ers. For example, our Hypertension Digi- tal Medicine program empowers patients with uncontrolled blood pressure to help get and keep their condition in control. This virtual program relies on data regularly sent by patients from a connected, at-home digi- tal blood cuff via their smartphone to the “… the O Bar, which is a really cool place located in several of our clinics that is staffed by a tech genius who can help patients engage with new health and wellness technology and tools.”