Magnatag InSight
The whiteboard and how it helps us brainstorm, innovate, motivate and create
Q&A With a Visual Systems Specialist: Tackling Healthcare Policy Reform Head-On
Thu Oct 13 2016By: Mike P
The healthcare industry is currently in the midst of a massive growth spurt, experiencing a period of extreme change. Part of that change involves a reform of industry-wide culture, placing more importance on standardization and communication. We recently spoke with Linda, the manager of our sales team and loyal Magnatag employee of 31 years, to get insight into the efforts that some healthcare facilities are taking as they progress further into this new shift in healthcare reform.
Out of all of our healthcare products, our OR surgery schedule is constantly topping our sales charts. Any idea as to why this is the case?
It’s become so popular in recent years because all the information you could ever need is readily available. It gives both nurses and doctors the opportunity to quickly look at the board and get a sense of what is going on. When everyone on a unit knows when surgeries are occurring and who’s responsible for a particular patient, it keeps things moving at an even pace and really organized—something that I’ve heard an increased demand for from healthcare professionals in recently.
Are there any issues healthcare facilities are attempting to solve with the help of this product?
Most people that come to us for help are looking for a simple method to inform everyone on the status of the facility. The thing that people really like about our boards in particular, is that they’re easy to use. So a patient can switch rooms at a moments notice, but regardless of where they are getting moved to, someone can easily reflect that transfer in real time on the board itself.
How were they managing this issue before contacting Magnatag?
A lot of times I’ll hear of healthcare facilities that use a little binder with an attached timesheet. So nurses and doctors are forced to go back and forth between this tiny book, updating room and patient status as the day or night progresses. It’s not necessarily something that you would ever really think twice about—as it gets the job done and all—but the fact that it’s not a large-scale product really hinders communication and can be messy. It still functions with the purpose of communication in mind, but traveling back and forth to check the book can get a bit cumbersome for such a fast-tempo workplace.
What are people saying about the product? Is it improving the workplace?
“Quick and easy-to-use” is one of the biggest forms of feedback that I receive from our customers. People really like it as a form of passive-communication between everyone on a unit. You don’t always have to run up to a book to check on it; you can simply glance at it while you travel between patients and that’s something people gravitate towards. If there is ever an immediate emergency situation that comes up, it’s great to have a way of displaying crucial information that can be changed within seconds. On one hand it helps to keep workers involved, while also keeping patients and their families informed—when it’s displayed in an area that can benefit both parties. Having the ability to rearrange information on the fly and in such a large format, is something that is invaluable for everyone involved in the day-to-day proceedings of a hospital.
The board itself is paired with our double-sided LongMagnets®, how are they being used?
Everyone likes the LongMagnats® because they make scheduling changes so easy. Someone can just grab a magnet and move it, preserving all the written information as it moves. It’s great because it allows the user to simply move and rearrange appointments as needed without having to rewrite everything as you would in a book or binder.
People also seem to like the magnets because they are two-sided. They can show when an operation has been completed and be flipped over to highlight a new procedure immediately. The concept of being able to flip the magnet over to reveal a new patient, procedure, and notes while still maintaining the current OR timeline makes using the board very simple and a favorite among our healthcare customers.
All of our dry erase OR Scheduling Boards can be custom built for your facility. Just give us a call at (800) 624-4154 or visit our site to begin designing your whiteboard today!
Out of all of our healthcare products, our OR surgery schedule is constantly topping our sales charts. Any idea as to why this is the case?
It’s become so popular in recent years because all the information you could ever need is readily available. It gives both nurses and doctors the opportunity to quickly look at the board and get a sense of what is going on. When everyone on a unit knows when surgeries are occurring and who’s responsible for a particular patient, it keeps things moving at an even pace and really organized—something that I’ve heard an increased demand for from healthcare professionals in recently.
Are there any issues healthcare facilities are attempting to solve with the help of this product?
Most people that come to us for help are looking for a simple method to inform everyone on the status of the facility. The thing that people really like about our boards in particular, is that they’re easy to use. So a patient can switch rooms at a moments notice, but regardless of where they are getting moved to, someone can easily reflect that transfer in real time on the board itself.
How were they managing this issue before contacting Magnatag?
A lot of times I’ll hear of healthcare facilities that use a little binder with an attached timesheet. So nurses and doctors are forced to go back and forth between this tiny book, updating room and patient status as the day or night progresses. It’s not necessarily something that you would ever really think twice about—as it gets the job done and all—but the fact that it’s not a large-scale product really hinders communication and can be messy. It still functions with the purpose of communication in mind, but traveling back and forth to check the book can get a bit cumbersome for such a fast-tempo workplace.
What are people saying about the product? Is it improving the workplace?
“Quick and easy-to-use” is one of the biggest forms of feedback that I receive from our customers. People really like it as a form of passive-communication between everyone on a unit. You don’t always have to run up to a book to check on it; you can simply glance at it while you travel between patients and that’s something people gravitate towards. If there is ever an immediate emergency situation that comes up, it’s great to have a way of displaying crucial information that can be changed within seconds. On one hand it helps to keep workers involved, while also keeping patients and their families informed—when it’s displayed in an area that can benefit both parties. Having the ability to rearrange information on the fly and in such a large format, is something that is invaluable for everyone involved in the day-to-day proceedings of a hospital.
The board itself is paired with our double-sided LongMagnets®, how are they being used?
Everyone likes the LongMagnats® because they make scheduling changes so easy. Someone can just grab a magnet and move it, preserving all the written information as it moves. It’s great because it allows the user to simply move and rearrange appointments as needed without having to rewrite everything as you would in a book or binder.
People also seem to like the magnets because they are two-sided. They can show when an operation has been completed and be flipped over to highlight a new procedure immediately. The concept of being able to flip the magnet over to reveal a new patient, procedure, and notes while still maintaining the current OR timeline makes using the board very simple and a favorite among our healthcare customers.
All of our dry erase OR Scheduling Boards can be custom built for your facility. Just give us a call at (800) 624-4154 or visit our site to begin designing your whiteboard today!
Categories:Healthcare and Hospitals
