EonCast: Chelsea Simpson and Tanisha Littlejohn from Wesley Medical Center share how EonDirect is optimizing their lung cancer screening program.

Danielle:
Hi everyone, I’m Daniel Stackrow and I’m the application specialist here at EonDirect. We’re starting a new video chat series twice a month checking in with our users to talk to them about how Eon Health’s EonDirect and see how it’s been impacting their incidental patient tracking and their lung screening at their hospitals.

Today with us we have Chelsea Simpson and Tanisha Littlejohn with Wesley Medical Center located in Wichita, Kansas. How’s your morning been going for you guys?

Chelsea & Tanisha:
Great. Good.

Danielle:
That’s awesome. So, first off, I really want to explain what step of the process you guys are in. Right now, EonDirect’s team is doing an audit on your historical backload of data while still registering your current patients to your EonDirect dashboard via our live interface streams with the end goal being a zero data entry for your Lung Cancer Screening program for both of you, which would be awesome. So, do you guys want to go ahead and kind of just explain what you guys were doing before you implemented EonDirect?

Chelsea:
Sure. So, we previously utilized a program that pulled data of patients that had incidental pulmonary nodules or lung cancer screenings. Both of those programs, the nodule and the screening program, we used an Excel spreadsheet to track all of that information. With the screening program we got up to about 500 patients and it started getting really heavy with the data entry aspect to the lung cancer screening registry. With the incidental nodule program, we had to track the follow-up, which included 6 and 12 month follow-up exams  and just constantly updated the Excel spreadsheet.

Danielle:
Right, do you mind if I go ahead and pull up those spreadsheets just so everyone can understand what you are referring to. I don’t know about you but Excel is not my friend so I don’t know how you guys made it work. So, can you see the spreadsheets?

Chelsea & Tanisha:
Yes.

Danielle:
So, this is the spreadsheet Chelsea was just talking about and I have no idea how you’re able to do this and then go ahead and be able to have all these individual fields uploaded and then tracked. If I scroll down at the bottom here is where you were able to have all of the incoming patients and the ones who needed to come in for a follow-up. Just going in and having to manually do that is a lot of time and effort, which a lot of nurses don’t have. So, do you think that EonDirect has been able to help change that?

Chelsea:
Well like you said excel can be very finicky at times and so the data entry aspect can get to be a lot of extra work and especially with creating the letters because Tanisha does the follow-up and she reminds the primary care physicians but she also has to do the patient and primary care physician letters explaining all of that. With EonDirect it creates the letters for us and so instead of doing the manual typing of the letters ourselves it can create the letter. And from a workflow aspect, we don’t have to deal with entering all of that data into the spreadsheet, as well as into the lung cancer screening registry because it is automatically pulled directly from EonDirect. That’s the best part.  The registry.

Danielle:
That’s great. So how has the transition from your Excel spreadsheet into Eon been? Do you mind walking through that and how that process has been for you guys?

Chelsea:
Sure, why don’t you talk about the data entry aspect. 

Tanisha:
For me it’s been a lot easier. We’re still working out the kinks of course but I mean that is with any new process, there is going to be hiccups. For me it’s a lot easier, I mean it’s less typing, less data entry (like you were saying Chelsea), less LCSR data submission. It goes a lot smoother and a lot quicker. Literally my favorite part is being able to click the whole list of patients and be able to submit with one click to the registry. That’s amazing and the best part for me. I don’t know about you.

Chelsea:
The registry. Before, it was a a lot of looking up in different programs. You would have to pull up multiple different data programs to be able to find the required data to enter into the website accurately, so it gets frustrating. So, to be able to pull that information from the report is a much simpler process.

Tanisha:
Yeah and I can’t wait until we’re all the way in! I mean it’s gonna be amazing all around.

Danielle:
That’s awesome thank you guys. And so you guys were able to sit down with Christine and Aki and go over the whole training process and introduction to EonDirect. How was just meeting them and the hands-on training. Do you mind talking about that?

Chelsea:
Yes, they were very engaged, very knowledgeable about their program it was obviously their baby. They really wanted to meet all of our needs as well and be able to speak to physicians, physician relations and administration on the reportable aspects and even how to track these incidental nodule and lung screening programs. Although each individual exam doesn’t seem like it’s making that much money for the hospital,  it can show the broader aspect of how important these programs are for patient care and follow through with pulmonary nodules and lung screenings. They also showed us each individual aspect of the software, how to use the program and how simple the program is to meet your own needs. The software is very easy to manage, it’s very simple, so we’ve been able to use it  going straight in. The software aspect is completely great.

Tanisha:
Yeah and on a personal level they make you feel so welcomed and they’re just really nice. And I don’t know about anyone else but I am a personal person. So walking in when they came, I was really nervous but when we sat down I was like oh okay. To know they’re very nice and welcoming, so we’re happy to be onboard.

Danielle:
And we love having you guys be a part Eon!  You guys are part of our family and are always talking to me over our in-app chat, it’s great.

Chelease:
And the chat feature is really nice.

Tanisha:
Awesome! I love it. Sorry Danielle (because I chat so much)

Danielle:
How has been the customer support through this whole process?

Chelsea:
Yeah, it’s been great. I mean we meet weekly to discuss the improvement and processes and everything that we can put into place to get this running smoothly in the long run and then the chat feature like we said it’s just right there. Everyone answers you right away and if there’s any questions or concerns that are needed to be answered quickly then it’s addressed, so it’s been great

Tanisha:
It’s really nice.

Danielle:
That’s awesome. So one last question – how do you see EonDirect really just affecting your overall workflow and process at Wesley?

Tanisha:
Oh it’s going to improve at least for me. The screening program in itself is such a huge thing. Our program is very large and so with the letters I know for me that’s going to help me so much, the automatic data entry that’s going to help a lot. I mean, just the screening alone is going to improve our workflow.

Chelsea:
The data management is going to save us so much time. I had another person in radiology that was submitting the required LCSR data for us so that’s another position that will be optimized, and both Tanisha and I have been using all of our time. I also do patient navigation so it’s going to allow me to pick up more patients as well as be able to really focus in on the patients that need quicker follow-up. I can get a lung team review for the nodule patients that have concerning nodules faster. It’s just going to be an easier workflow overall.   The traceability and analytics is great, it shows real time data and Excel spreadsheets don’t. I’m not good enough to do the money numbers in Excel, but to be able to show my hospital and my administration  all the work we put in. You know money talks and it’s important to know if these programs are really benefiting patients in the hospital. So, it’s great to have that ability to run those reports and show them the true positive aspects of these program.

Danielle:
Yeah that’s awesome. We are so excited to really finish out the implementation stage and really get going with you guys so you are utilizing the whole program. So thank you guys so much for jumping on this with me and kicking off our video chat series. Thank you guys so much.

Chelsea & Tanisha:
Thank you.