Virtual White Boards for Patient Satisfaction

Improving Patient Satisfaction Through Information Display Using Virtual White Boards

Communication with patients on their clinical status is important in delivering care in the emergency department. During times of high volume or complex patients, there may be lapses in communicating with patients about their hospital course or plans of action. These miscommunications may be enhanced during the current COVID-19 pandemic as there is minimized in-person interaction with patients in order to conserve personal protective equipment and decrease the risk of disease transmission. This study utilizes a virtual white board to deliver updates to patients about the status of their emergency department stay.

Study Overview

• Status: Unknown
• Conditions: Emergencies; Covid19; Satisfaction, Patient; Satisfaction; Information Disclosure
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Treatment as usual; Device: e-ink screen

Detailed Description

The ultimate goal of this study is to understand the effect of delivering timely information about a patient's emergency department course of their satisfaction surrounding the emergency department stay. The experience of patients in the emergency department has been significantly altered by the COVID-19 pandemic due to decreased in-person encounters, and the use of PPE. Delivering information about their clinical course and expected hospital course is more difficult now given the emphasis on less in-person interaction. In response, the investigators have deployed in collaboration with e-ink, a virtual e-paper white board that can be remotely edited to help display pertinent hospital course information to patients in the emergency department. The investigators will conduct a randomized controlled trial to understand the effect of deploying these white boards on patient satisfaction in the emergency department.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 100
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Massachusetts
    • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02115
      • Recruiting
      • Brigham and Women's Hospital
      • Contact: Guruprasad D Jambaulikar, MBBS MPH; Email: gjambaulikar@bwh.harvard.edu
      • Contact: Peter R Chai, MD MMS; Phone Number: 617-732-5640; Email: pchai@bwh.harvard.edu

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients in emergency department at Brigham and Women's Hospital
• Triaged to designated emergency department pods outfitted with virtual white board
• Expected emergency department stay of at least four hours
• Able to speak and read english
• Not primary psychiatric complaint

Exclusion Criteria:

• Medically ill or otherwise deemed unable to participate by the study PI and/or treating clinical team.
• Patients admitted to an inpatient bed but boarding in the emergency department over 10 hours.
• Previously participated in the study.
• Has COVID-19 risk flag or confirmed COVID-19 in electronic health record

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Treatment as usual in emergency department; Individuals triaged to a pod in the emergency department without rooms that are fitted with a virtual display screen	Behavioral: Treatment as usual; Treatment as usual in the emergency department with communication of testing results, imaging and disposition by the primary clinical emergency department team.
Experimental: Virtual white board; Individuals triaged to a pod in the emergency department in a room that is fitted with a virtual display screen	Device: e-ink screen; A virtual display screen developed by e-ink that displays patient status, basic demographics, care team information, pending tests and anticipated disposition

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
emergency department satisfaction: likert scale	Satisfaction of overall emergency department stay measured by a 1-5 likert scale, hospital developed question on satisfaction (how satisfied were you with your emergency department stay today?)- higher score is better	30 minutes after disposition decision for patient
Quality of emergency department stay: likert scale	Quality of information conveyed to participant (rated on 5 point likert scale on questions about quality of waiting time for test results, staff concern, perceived teamwork in the hospital)	30 minutes after disposition decision for patient

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Preference for virtual white board	Question on preference for virtual white board compared to a standard emergency department room without a white board (1-4 likert scale, with 4 being strongly prefer white board room)	30 minutes after disposition decision for patient

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Brigham and Women's Hospital
• Collaborators: E-ink corporation
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Peter R Chai, MD MMS, Brigham and Women's Hospital

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 25, 2021
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): April 30, 2021
• Study Completion (Anticipated): May 15, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 30, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 3, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): August 4, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): January 27, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 25, 2021
• Last Verified: January 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pathologic Processes; Disease Attributes; Emergencies
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2020P002382

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No