NYU Langone Health Initiative Strengthens Connections Between Patients and Caregivers
By Christopher Cheney
NYU Langone Health has launched About Me, an initiative that allows patients to share personal information that helps create stronger connections with caregivers.
The About Me initiative leverages native functionality in the Epic electronic health record. When a patient is admitted to a hospital, the patient receives an SMS text message with a link to MyChart. The message asks the patient, “We want to get to know you as a person, not just a patient. What you should know about me is….”
The patient completes an About Me entry, then it immediately feeds into the Epic desktop. NYU Langone Health also has virtual nurses who can complete an About Me entry for a patient.
“The About Me information features how the patient wants to be presented and what is important to them,” says Katherine Hochman, MD, a practicing clinician and director of the Division of Hospital Medicine at NYU Langone Health.
The About Me initiative is designed to address a growing challenge for clinicians at the health system, according to Hochman.
“Our length of stay has gotten shorter, which is outstanding for patients because they are getting great quality care in shorter amounts of time,” Hochman says. “But for frontline caregivers like me, we have less time to make connections with patients.”
About Me jumpstarts the connection between caregivers and patients, Hochman explains, because every patient has an interesting story to tell.
“For example, in the past we would have a patient with heart failure and that is how we identified that patient,” Hochman says. “But I had a heart failure patient who entered in About Me that she rehabilitates orchids, and her face just brightened when we talked about orchids. She felt valued and seen.”
About Me helps caregivers connect with patients beyond their medical condition, says Paul Testa, MD, a practicing clinician and chief health informatics officer at NYU Langone Health.
“As physicians and nurses, we are trained to connect with patients,” Testa says. “Firstly, this connection is based on the pathology, disease process, and complaint that brought a patient to the hospital. But it is important to connect with patients beyond the pathology, which is what About Me offers us.”
Establishing personal connections with patients has a crucial benefit for their care, according to Hochman.
“I have a mantra that I tell my team, which is ‘slow down to speed up,'” Hochman says. “If you take the time to get to know a patient from the beginning of their admission, which can be as little as 30 seconds, you can build trust. By building trust, you can speed up an admission because the patient is more amenable to completing workups, taking medication, and other elements of their care plan.”
“There is importance in not getting to the medical part of an interview with a patient quickly,” Hochman says. “The About Me information helps me relate to the patient and helps the patient relate to me. That builds empathy and trust. It helps improve the quality of the encounter.”
The information generated by About Me benefits both caregivers and patients, according to Testa.
“I learn about the richness of my patients, and patients get to share their stories,” Testa says.
About Me is helping to promote joy in practicing medicine, Hochman explains.
“I can empathize with patients better,” Hochman says. “When I know what is important to patients, it helps me root for them. I want them to get back to their lives. When I know what challenges and struggles patients face, it creates a shared humanity and that makes practicing medicine special.”
Practicing medicine can be difficult, and About Me information helps clinicians remain close to their patients, according to Testa.
“Clinicians can become distant from their patients, but it is harder to do that when the patient has shared something about themselves,” Testa says.
The About Me feature in Epic is easy for clinicians and nurses to use.
“All we have to do is hover over an icon that is close to the patient’s name in Epic, then the About Me information pops up,” Hochman says. “Clinicians can also create an About Me column in their patient lists, so they can see the About Me information easily.”
Christopher Cheney is the CMO editor at HealthLeaders.