Behind the App: SeamlessMD at NBRHC

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Patients receiving certain types  of surgery at the North Bay Regional Health Centre (NBRHC) can now access a free mobile digital education tool that, together with a dedicated Registered Nurse (RN), will help guide their health care journey and help keep patients on track.

FINAL-Behind-the-App

NBRHC has partnered with SeamlessMD to customize the information patients will need to prepare for, and recover from, some procedures at the hospital. The information is accessible either as a mobile app on a smartphone or tablet or online via the website on a computer.

Regardless of how you access SeamlessMD, every patient is supported behind the app by an RN whose role is to help keep patients safe and connected while at home.

At NBRHC that falls to Amanda Gauthier, RN and Patient Monitoring Lead for SeamlessMD. A former emergency and recovery room nurse, Gauthier’s latest assignment has her monitoring patient’s responses and interactions with the app, ready to intervene if necessary.

Patients who have signed up for SeamlessMD have access to health care checks they can do on a daily basis to keep them on track with their recovery. The use of the app by patients is intended to enhance and support existing health care resources—not to replace care.  Patients are prompted to provide self-reported data such as pain score, symptoms, range-of-motion, and wound photos, enabling quicker intervention if necessary.

Gauthier explains she is alerted if a patient shares anything via the app that might be out of the ordinary. “When I receive an alert I review the information provided by the patient and if further intervention is required, I call the patient just to make sure everything is ok.” Patients also have access to her extension at the hospital if they need to call her.

The app sends patients reminders about how to prepare for surgery; tips for recovery; to-do lists; and access to a library of information tailored for your surgery. Instead of Googling something you are concerned about, you have trusted information reviewed by NBRHC surgeons and tailored to the surgery experience at our hospital.

Behind-the-App-1The first patient to sign up for SeamlessMD at NBRHC was Nancy Boody of Corbeil. Boody was scheduled to have a total knee replacement in February at NBRHC and she was approached by Gauthier before her surgery about signing up. “I thought it sounded like a good idea,” says Boody, a retired nurse herself. “In my book, anything that will help and motivate me to get through the post op recovery and rehab was worth it.”

Boody’s surgery was a same day surgery, meaning she was discharged from hospital the same day of her knee replacement. “I didn’t know what it was going to be like,” Boody admits. As she went through her recovery journey at home, she found the app helped motivate her to do the exercises as part of her recovery. “I didn’t want to report  that I hadn’t done the exercises I was supposed to,” she says. “It also made me feel more secure knowing there was someone following my progress.”

Gauthier says it is this kind of follow through she finds the most rewarding in her new role. “I’ve never had a role like this, I’ve always been a bedside nurse,” she says. “Most of my career has been short term patient interactions—both in the recovery room and in emergency, you see patients for a very short period of time.”  Gauthier says she really enjoys seeing the patients succeed “versus my other roles, when you don’t really know what happened after they leave.”

The technology has been shown to reduce ED visits, hospital length of stay and readmissions. Gauthier says for patients, there really is no disadvantage to sign up for the program. “Patients can use it as much or as little as they want or need.”

Patients who are booked for eligible surgeries at NBRHC will be contacted about signing up for the program. For more information visit the SeamlessMD website at https://seamless.md/ or contact Gauthier at 705.474.866 ext 4422.

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