RRH’s Daniel P. Ireland talks tech & innovation in nursing

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The use of technology and innovation in nursing continues to evolve at a rapid pace. We checked in with Daniel P. Ireland, EVP, chief nursing executive and patient care officer at Rochester Regional Health, to find out how technology is helping both nurses and patients and where he sees innovation headed in his field.

How have you personally seen technology and innovation evolve in the nursing industry throughout your career?

In my 33 years as a nurse, I have seen tremendous changes in the technology we use in nursing. From the time we used to calculate and count drip rates in IVs to the use of smart pumps that download the physician’s order, perform the rate calculation to perfection and control the administration of critical medications, to the use of robotic surgery, that has allowed for a level of precision we never thought we would see.

Our ever-expanding ability to communicate with experts in our field has also changed over this time, allowing access to knowledgeable professionals such as clinical specialists, pharmacists and providers with real-time information and the ability to remotely monitor the patient has provided our nurses with fast efficient information that guides the patients’ care.

With our virtual nursing platform, we have been able to create collaborative opportunities at the bedside over multiple locations, allowing experienced and knowledgeable nurses the ability to guide our bedside nurses like never before.

What has been one of the most impactful innovations for nursing over the past few decades?

Advances in technology and innovation have been supporting nurses through improvement in quality, efficiency, and safety over the past 20 years. The implementation of the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) was one of the milestone improvements in patient safety and quality in the last twenty years. The EMR has allowed nurses to integrate and access real-time patient data, improve consistency of documentation, and coordinate care across the health care continuum.

As building blocks off of the implementation of the EMR, automated medication dispensing stations and bedside barcode scanning have improved the safety and efficiency of medication administration. The checks and verifications these systems perform provide vital protections to reduce patient harm from human error that can occur during the medication administration process. This helps our nurses improve their confidence and provides greater opportunities for nurses to use their time and skills to assess, educate, and support the patient’s needs.

What about over the past several years?

The implementation of virtual nursing has also helped our nurses provide high-quality safe care, from comprehensive patient teaching to intensive monitoring, to fall prevention, the virtual nurse is an additive measure that supports the bedside team, freeing up vital time for nurses to perform other important tasks for the patients.

The use of robots has been instrumental in reducing the time that nurses spend away from the bedside. Moxi, our automated delivery robots, have greatly reduced the time the nurses need to run and get supplies and equipment, giving back time for nurses and support staff to spend with our patients.

Finally, the implementation of artificial intelligence embedded in our systems helps provide critical alerts in a timely manner to nurses when a patient’s condition is changing and requires attention. The logical algorithms in these systems can more efficiently scan multiple variables and create early warnings for a patient’s changing condition. This is vital to supporting the bedside nurses in giving the highest quality care possible. The same tools are being used for workload scoring to balance patient needs across the nursing team based on real-time changes with documentation and orders to help alleviate clinician burnout.

How does technology that helps nurses ultimately help patients?

Advances in technology and innovation have made patient care safer over the years, reducing thousands of errors through process standardization, and consistency of practice for nurses. This has been demonstrated in reduced hospital-based injury and improved outcomes for patients. Allowing our patients to live healthier and longer as a result of these improvements. The data housed within the EMR allows us to track these quality indicators and make evidence-based improvements to further advance the care of our community.

Any closing thoughts about innovation and nursing?

As progressive as health care technology and innovation have been in the last 20 years, it is important to recognize this is just the tip of the iceberg. Technology and innovation are accelerating at lightning speed, and the innovations that will be coming in the next five years will transform health care as we know it today. The use of automated processes will make the work of our nurses easier and continue to allow our nurses to use their knowledge and skills to continue to improve the care of our patients. This is one of the most exciting times in health care and one of the most impactful for our nurses.

Caurie Putnam is a Rochester-area freelance writer.