Episode 9: Nurse Call Systems Don’t Always Need Upgrades: Patient Experiences Do

Episode Summary

Carl Cox and Kyryll Keydanskyy are a bit of an unlikely pair. 

With over fifty years of experience in the healthcare industry, Carl was a key player in early nurse call system innovation in the 1970s. Because he’s seen how far healthcare technology has come since then, he has a firm grasp on what is already working well for caregivers and healthcare delivery organizations (HDOs). Kyryll, on the other hand, is of a younger generation — he sees HDOs moving toward a more hospitality-inspired model in the coming years.

As the Director of Engineering and Chief Product Officer of HatchMed, respectively, Carl and Kyryll are both committed to improving the usability and accessibility of consumer devices for patients in hospital settings. 

Kyryll notes that while it can be tempting to rush into overhauling medical technology like nurse call systems, that level of disruption is often unnecessary and can even be detrimental to existing workflows. 

That’s why HatchMed is on a mission to effectively adapt familiar consumer devices for healthcare settings. Carl and Kyryll are facilitating communication between patients and caregivers by pioneering patient-focused tablet solutions, some of which allow patients to use their own devices to control their environment and communicate with nurses. 

In this episode of CarePoints with Kenny Schiff, Carl and Kyryll discuss numerous exciting and innovative HatchMed technologies. With a laser focus on improving the patient experience and supporting caregivers, HatchMed is out to prove that innovation sometimes requires working with what’s already in place, rather than uprooting existing structures and replacing them with entirely new systems.

Featured on the Episode

Name: Carl Cox

What he does: Carl Cox is the Director of Engineering and Quality Control at HatchMed, with 50 years of design experience and 40 years of regulatory experience in the healthcare communication industry. Having spent much of this time with Chicago-based manufacturer Rauland-Borg, Carl began consulting in 2017, taking on HatchMed as a client before joining the company three years later in a full-time role. 

Organization: HatchMed

Words of wisdom: “That’s one of the areas that we’re focusing on: being able to give patients the same easy-to-use and familiar-to-use devices they use at home but that they can operate inside the hospital.”

Connect: LinkedIn 

Name: Kyryll Keydanskyy 

What he does: Since Kyryll Keydanskyy, a Ukraine native and UW graduate, first joined HatchMed 7 years ago, he has been focused on taking consumer devices and reengineering them for healthcare use. How do you transform something as ubiquitous and easy to use as an iPad into a medical device or take the patient’s own phone and make it seamlessly control the nurse call system? Kyryll has created innovative hardware and software solutions to revolutionize these products for patients and care team members alike. A self-proclaimed tech fanboy, he is passionate about working alongside his design and engineering team to invent products that are intuitive to use, elegantly engineered, and most importantly, created to save both patients and care team members time at every step in their healthcare journey.

Organization: HatchMed

Words of wisdom: “Any new tech that we introduce to the hospitals needs to be balanced and integrated in a way that works with the existing systems and doesn't force the care teams to become IT people.”

Connect: LinkedIn 

Key Points

Top takeaways from this episode 

• Aim to enhance existing systems, rather than overhaul them. Instead of completely gutting existing systems that work well, HatchMed augments nurse call systems and facilitates communication between patients and caregivers. Not only is this strategy more cost-effective than more drastic options, but it also allows care teams to continue using technologies that have been working for them without needing to be retrained. 

• Zero in on the “why” of implementing innovations. HDOs that are interested in implementing HatchMed technologies need to ask why they want or need an upgrade — this helps HDOs focus on the features that matter to staff and patients. “How do we save the nurses’ time? And how do we get patients home sooner and, ideally, happy?” asks Kyryll. Ultimately, HatchMed has experienced great success with HDOs that are committed to providing exceptional care for their patients while lightening caregivers' mental and physical load. 

• Don’t be afraid to start small and expand from there. Kyryll emphasizes that new technology needs a champion, and that champion needs a concrete plan for tech implementation. He recommends starting by rolling out a handful of impactful features and expanding the scope of the project down the road. Problems arise when HDOs want “to do everything all at once,” he says.

[00:00] Combining experience and fresh ideas: Carl Cox and Kyryll Keydanskyy share their professional backgrounds and how they came to work together on numerous HatchMed technologies.

[03:12] Balancing new tech with current systems: There’s always going to be a drive to implement new tech, but an overhaul may not be the ideal solution. Carl and Kyryll are committed to helping hospitals integrate patient-friendly tech into their existing structures. 

[05:06] Prioritizing the patient: Nurse call systems have come a long way since the 1970s. What hasn’t progressed as rapidly or as steadily is communicative technologies that allow the patient to speak with their care team. That’s where HatchMed comes in. 

[08:02] Increasing access to actionable data: Improving the flow of information between patients and caregivers can pay off in many ways. HatchMed technologies not only better the patient experience but also save time for nurses and help patients transition from the hospital to home. 

[09:20] Enhancing rather than overhauling: HatchMed is extending what traditional nurse call systems can do by empowering patients with configurable screens that facilitate communication with their care team. 

[11:55] Focusing on data security: HatchMed’s innovations streamline the patient experience via the patient’s personal device or smartphone. This presents some unique challenges in terms of safeguarding sensitive data. 

[17:50] Augmenting equals cost savings: Implementing improvements incrementally is more cost-effective than building a new tower. 

[19:29] Providing a universal experience: HatchMed’s interface is consistent from room to room, which offers a sense of continuity for patients and families. 

[20:10] Identify your ‘why’: New technology is fun and flashy, but hospitals need to have a concrete plan regarding how and when technology will roll out. HatchMed has had success starting with small roll-outs and ramping up implementation down the line. 

[22:10] Necessary structural components: In terms of infrastructure, a hospital needs to have an Ethernet drop or reliable Wi-Fi connection in order to use HatchMed’s products. 

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CarePoints with Kenny Schiff by Lone Star Communications is a series of conversations with his collaborators at Lone Star, customers, partners, and notable folks in the healthcare industry. For over 32 years, Lone Star Communications has been focused on transforming healthcare through innovation and empowering improved caregiver and patient experience.