Trish Wnek, Program Manager, Children’s Wisconsin
Children Wisconsin’s (CW’s) digital health strategy began with the goal of improving the accessibility and deliverability of patient care resources – not with deciding what third-party apps and devices to use.
At CW, the state’s only independent healthcare system dedicated solely to the health and well-being of children, we are laying the groundwork for our broader digital health vision: a comprehensive family health engagement platform that will allow parents and loved ones to take an active role in their kids’ care.
In our first year of partnership with Xealth, we achieved the following:
- Integration of CW custom and KidsHealth patient educational content into digital care – including teaching sheets, videos, and web pages
- Content accessibility via text, email, and MyChart
- Bundling, order sets, and automation enablement across various clinical areas
- 2,500 orders placed for 1,000+ unique patients, with a 25% content engagement rate
Our organization made a strategic decision to select Xealth to further enable families’ ability to participate actively in their children’s care journeys and in keeping with our vision of caring for the healthiest kids in the nation.
Our asset digitization began with the wealth of custom educational resources and KidsHealth content already in use, most of which was only available in hard copy. In other words, we started with the patient resources we already had instead of looking to reinvent the wheel.
Real-Life Examples of Children’s Wisconsin Digital Health in Action
First, we started by making it easy for families to participate in their children’s care journeys. They receive an SMS (text) message with a link. In just one click, a family member can enter the child’s birthdate to be granted access to all educational materials prescribed to the patient.
For the initial launch, we made the ability to share educational content in this way available to all care teams and providers across the system. Shortly thereafter, we worked directly with specialties to implement program-specific bundles and automation. Some examples of this include:
- Asthma Education – Education specific to patient’s care: The Children’s Asthma Allergy team wants families to read and understand a series of sheets and videos as part of their child’s care plan.
- Allergy Pre-Visit Information – Pre-visit education: Before a patient’s first visit with the allergy clinic for a penicillin-related allergy, the clinic shares relevant information on the allergy and what to expect during the visit.
- Child Development Center – Resources for families: Care teams teach families about behavioral-related concerns and conditions (e.g., ADHD, anxiety, and autism).
- TrachVent – Education on medical devices: The TrachVent team created customized videos of Children’s Wisconsin care team members to show how to use medical devices for children.
We’ve also identified several app integrations for future phases:
- Period of Purple Crying App by the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome
- Foodsmart tele-nutrition and food-based resources
- Medbridge therapy exercises shared with patients in physical and occupational therapy
- Locus Health remote patient monitoring solution
And of course, our team will continue to develop and add custom teaching sheets, videos, web pages, and educational modules in-house.
Children Wisconsin’s Four-Phase Digital Health Strategy
At CW, we recognize that advancement in digital health is not a finite process and that a phased-in approach was needed.
Here are the four phases of our digital health strategy implementation:
- Technology Maturation and Standardization: This is where we are right now. Our primary objective is to scale digital care across our health system. Digital order use, third-party integration, resource additions, and offering content tailored to language preferences are our main focus at this time.
- Build a Health Resources Hub: Our next step is to launch our CW app 2.0. It will integrate with Xealth’s API 2.0 and feature expanded digital care components, prescribed and general content, and enhanced usability of that content. We’ll be able to fully customize our patient card feed – including attributes such as look, feel, and language.
- Deliver Tailored Content: With a robust resources hub, we can then personalize care by allowing families to manage care better at home, providing customized education and videos, and connecting them with beneficial community resources.
- Engage Families in their Kid’s Health: Once we’ve reached peak enablement, families will be able to participate in children’s health journeys more actively.
Our partnership with Xealth has made it easier for our providers to order and monitor digital health solutions by integrating custom content management systems with our EHR and patient portal.
Xealth is also highly-sensitive to alert fatigue for patients and families, as such, provider communications remain consistent to ensure we engage them on their terms.
CW and Xealth are working together to ensure that families have the right information about their child’s condition and treatment plan at the right time. This improves the care experience for the parents and children, and reduces time spent by clinicians unwinding the effects of unguided, pre-treatment internet searches.
We at CW look forward to growing our digital health initiatives, engagement, and quality of pediatric care with Xealth. My advice to other children’s health systems is to simply get started. You don’t have to wait until you have every digital app for every condition or the latest and greatest educational content, start with what you have. Contact Xealth today, you won’t regret it