Same-day surgery in cyberspace: A whole new world of opportunity
Marketing, education, networking are just a few advantages
In the past week, about 275 people worldwide have perused information about BayCare Surgery Center in Green Bay, WI. Administrator Jeff Mason, RN, MBA, has talked to people from as far away as Saudi Arabia and New Zealand. Locally, every month, several hundred people scan information about the center, its physicians, and its patient satisfaction ratings.
What is BayCare doing to attract such interest? The center opened a World Wide Web site, a location on the Internet, which is a global network of computers. (For a glossary of Internet lingo, see p. 50.) BayCare's home page includes pre-op and postop instructions, directions, a map to the center, and physician referral information. Prospective patients can click on the patient satisfaction survey and view a bar graph revealing the average responses to each question collected over time.
BayCare's home page address has been printed on its letterhead and business cards and soon will be incorporated in preadmission brochures available in physicians' offices.
"I envision it replacing the phone book in the future," says Mason. "If you have questions about BayCare, you can call us on the phone, or you can look it up on the home page. Why would you bother making the call?"
Same-day surgery managers such as Mason tout the Internet as a vital new way of doing business -- a mechanism for marketing, education, and networking. The Chicago-based American Society of Outpatient Surgeons has even launched an outcomes monitoring study that will collect data on the Internet. Through the Internet, SDS managers can research a same-day surgery topic, ask peers for comments on a new procedure, scan news from professional organizations and government agencies, and even take courses and obtain CE credits.
The World Wide Web allows users to click on "hypertext" links, giving them immediate access to documents that various organizations and businesses have created. These documents may include text, sound, animation, video, and other graphics. The Internet Relay Chat allows users to communicate with others who are online at the same time -- through a local phone call.
"The Internet is growing at such a fantastic rate that I believe it's going to become a critical tool for surgery center managers," says Mason.
For example, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations in Oakbrook Terrace, IL, is opening a Web site that will include information about accreditation surveys and standards and abstracts of articles from Joint Commission newsletters and journals. (For a list of useful Internet addresses, see p. 51.)
"Doing business in cyberspace is a contemporary reality," says Deal Chandler, RRA, MA, vice president for education. "I think it's mandatory. [Being without access] is like an organization not having a fax machine. You need to be on the Internet to do business in today's society."
Think of the Internet as a new communication tool as powerful and revolutionary as the invention of the telephone, says Robert T. Marousky, RN, MS, CNOR, a retired U.S. Air Force major and OR nurse who is working on a doctorate at the University of South Alabama in Mobile and presents workshops on the use of computers.
"We're going into a 'virtual' world -- a world that is almost real," says Marousky. Exchange of information is instantaneous through e-mail.
Gaining access to the Internet is a fairly simple task, notes Marousky. You need a computer, a telephone line, a modem, an Internet provider, and software, he says. There are hundreds of local, regional, and national providers of Internet access, including services such as Vienna, VA-based America On-Line and Columbus, OH-based Compuserve, and direct providers such as NETCOM On-Line Communication Services of San Jose, CA.
Typically, providers offer the necessary software free of charge and have a flat rate for a certain number of free hours on the Internet, with per-hour charges for extra hours.
Once you are connected, you can search for same-day surgery information or other, specific topics. Some organizations are offering educational programs on the Internet that will provide continuing education credits. For example, the Denver-based Association of Operating Room Nurses (AORN) has opened a home page with legislative updates, news releases, business and industry information, and journal articles. AORN also plans to offer home-study programs, says Aleece Raw, Web site developer.
"It's basically a new educational product," says Raw. The Internet provides access to sites such as the National Institute of Medicine in Washington, DC, and "The Virtual Hospital," with patient and clinician information from the University of Iowa in Iowa City. "There's a world of information you've never had access to before," Raw says.
When Stephen Massey, RN, CNOR, director of surgical services at Columbia Tulsa (OK) Regional Medical Center, wanted to talk to counterparts at sister facilities after his hospital was purchased by Columbia/HCA, he went to Columbia's Web site and downloaded a list.
"It saved me days in research," he says.
Massey views the Internet as an important tool for staff training and for sharing clinical information with other same-day surgery professionals. When his staff nurses want more information about a new procedure, they can save time by searching through the World Wide Web, he says.
"To be able to communicate globally and see what your peers are doing will enhance the ability of the perioperative nurse to deliver care more efficiently and effectively," Massey says.
Mason also has used the Internet resources for management needs. "When I'm ready to calculate wage increases, we want to look at things like the consumer price index. We'll get that off the Internet," he says. "If we want to calculate distance between us and the nearest hospital, there's some great distance and mileage calculators on the Internet.
"It's such an amazing tool," Mason says. "We haven't even begun to tap its potential for our business office needs."
Marketing has always been a primary objective of BayCare Surgery Center's Web site. Mason likens it to advertising in the Yellow Pages. He pays $150 a month to a marketing firm to maintain the home page, a charge he expects will drop in the future as competition for that service increases.
"If you advertise in five phone books in your region and surrounding area, you're probably paying about the same per month," he notes. With the home page, prospective patients can get information about the center or its physicians with a click of their mouse and can send e-mail messages to Mason.
As Mason and his staff began planning what information they wanted to offer on the center's home page, they had evidence of the growing popularity of the Internet. They tried to register the name "baycare" for their home page address, but a group of physicians in San Francisco had already done that two days earlier.
"Then we tried 'bcsc' for BayCare Surgery Center, but someone had registered that the day before," Mason says. They settled on "baycare surgery." "It shows that the four-letter acronyms and the short names are going up fast," he says.
BayCare Surgery Center has gotten some local media coverage for starting a Web site, but Mason says such coverage is unlikely for centers in large markets where businesses routinely have such sites. The center also is running radio ads to get out the word.
For those who want to learn how to start a home page or who want to find consulting firms that can help, Mason suggests contacting a local retail store that sells and services computers.
Meanwhile, Mason has been communicating with other same-day surgery administrators (via e-mail) about setting up a "ListServ," which would allow managers to send the same messages to a group of people at the same time. Such groups are vehicles for sharing information and electronic networking.
If you're new to the Internet, you may want to start by just "cruising" or "surfing" through the vast expanse of cyberspace. For example, Massey searched for the key word "nursing" and found a home page on clinical issues written by nurses in England.
"Just go get lost in the Internet," advises Massey. "It's like going to one of your favorite bookstores and browsing the shelves." *
Glossary of Internet Terms
* Browser: Software program that provides access to the Internet.
* Cruising or surfing: Terms for skipping through the hypertext links of the World Wide Web.
* Downloading: Copying information from another computer onto your disk or hard drive.
* E-mail: Electronic mail. A method of sending instantaneous messages to other users of a computer network.
* FAQs: Frequently asked questions
* Home page: The introductory page of a World Wide Web site, which provides a menu and links to documents, graphics, and other related Web sites.
* Hypertext: Highlighted text that allows the user to instantly access other documents or references on a related subject.
* Internet: A global network of computers that use the same communication protocols.
* ListServs: E-mail lists that allow someone to send the same message to multiple people at the same time.
* World Wide Web: A hypertext-based system on the Internet that allows computer users to access a vast number of documents.
Useful Internet Sites
Organizations and agencies:
* Association of Operating Room Nurses (AORN): Home page offers information on "perioperative nursing today," legislative updates, AORN news releases, business and industry, and journal articles. http://www.aorn.org/.
* American Society of Outpatient Surgeons (ASOS): Available only to members through a password. Offers meeting announcements, library resources, discussion areas on medical, legislative, and regulatory topics, employment information, CME opportunities, and data collection for a special ASOS outcomes project. http://madduck.mmd.vcu.edu/asosweb/asos.html.
* Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Provides CDC reports, publications, and statistics, and includes information on infection control, handling infectious waste, and sterilization/disinfection. http://www.cdc.gov.
* Food and Drug Administration: Includes the latest FDA news, Federal Register notices and enforcement reports, as well as archives . Also has a section on medical device regulations and the MedWatch reporting form. http://www.fda.gov.
* Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA): HCFA news, regulations, publications, and forms, including data files used to develop Medicare hospital payment rates. http://www.hcfa.gov.
* Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations: News from the Joint Commission, information about accreditation, standards, the survey process, and performance measurement, abstracts of journal articles. May eventually include a list of accredited organizations for access by consumers. http://www.jcaho.org.
* Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA): Information on standards, OSHA office directory, frequently asked questions, statistics, OSHA publications, and news are among the topics available on this Web site. http://www.osha.gov.
Medical news and clinical information:
* American Health Consultants: Up-to-date news for health care professionals from the publisher of Same-Day Surgery. Includes an opportunity to query experts and an extensive list of direct links to other health care sites. http://www.ahcpub.com.
* MedScape: Peer-reviewed medical journal articles. http://www.scp.com/.
* National Institute of Medicine: Access to databases, including MEDLINE, which provides clinical journal articles. There is a fee required to access some databases. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/.
* The Virtual Hospital: A site maintained by the University of Iowa in Iowa City, which includes both patient- and clinician-oriented information. Provides textbooks, teaching modules, and CME courses. http://vh.radiology.uiowa.edu/.
* Your Health Daily: Medical information compiled by The New York Times syndicate. http://www.nytsyn.com/medic/.
For more information on the advantages of the Internet, contact:
* Robert T. Marousky, 2720 Walton Drive, Ocean Springs, MS 39564. Telephone: (601) 875-9836. E-mail: [email protected].
* Jeff Mason, Administrator, BayCare Surgery Center, P.O. Box 33227, Green Bay, WI 54303-0102. Telephone: (414) 592-9100. Fax: (414) 497-6830. E-mail: [email protected]. Home page: http://www.baycaresurgery.com.
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