OSF OnCall Connect and the I-80 region are partnering to offer a new obstetric care model. Pregnant or postpartum women in Ottawa, Peru, Mendota and surrounding communities will now have the opportunity to schedule more visits virtually during their pregnancy. In addition, all I-80 patients will be eligible to enroll in the Pregnancy and Postpartum Support program that offers 24/7/365 access to an OB care team. 

I-80 patients will now be offered virtual visits at eight, 12, 19, 24, 30 and 34 weeks. The two-week postpartum visit can also be scheduled virtually. 

Visits are available seven days a week from 7 a.m.-7 p.m., offering patients additional flexibility and opportunities. Nurses on the OSF OnCall Connect team will enroll all I-80 OB patients in the pregnancy and postpartum support program at no cost, providing continuous access for questions and concerns, conducting virtual discharges and scheduling follow-up appointments. Patients will also be screened for social drivers of health such as food, transportation, housing and other supports. OSF OnCall does have a mobile unit to support pregnant-postpartum women on Medicaid who might need care brought their doorstep.

”The one-year program combines virtual visits, 24/7 digital support and in-person care to ease travel burdens, strengthen follow-up and provide a healthier pregnancy and postpartum experience,” says Kate Johnson, manager of Digital Care-Women’s Services, OSF OnCall. “We are committed to innovative solutions that keep care personal while expanding access.” Johnson adds, “Women will benefit from coordinated prenatal and postpartum monitoring and stronger follow-up, while in-person care teams will maintain key milestones and bedside care.”

The OSF OnCall Connect care team will also support post-delivery education before a woman is discharged from the hospital, making sure she has follow-up appointments scheduled, understands the need for regular blood pressure checks and offering lactation services if needed.

The research collected during the year-long pilot will evaluate outcomes, patient experiences and staff insights to guide improvements and shape patient-centered care and communications. 

B-roll-OSF OnCall Pregnancy-Postpartum support for I-80 region

Additional content re: OSF OnCall Pregnancy and Postpartum support:
24-7 connection through OSF OnCall empowers patients and improves outcomes
OSF HealthCare receives $1.5 million for new mobile pregnancy and postpartum care unit

No one wants to go to a hospital emergency department (ED), but sometimes, there’s no avoiding it.

As OSF HealthCare joins other health systems struggling with staffing shortages, it is also seeing patients without access to primary care showing up in emergency rooms and facing long waits for less serious health issues. To meet the challenge of long wait times, OSF is turning to virtual technology to move patients through their ED experience more efficiently.

Anyone coming into the hospital emergency department at OSF HealthCare Saint Elizabeth Medical Center in either Peru or Ottawa, Illinois will be triaged to determine the seriousness of their condition or injury. Patients who qualify for this time saving option for care will be taken to one of our virtual care rooms where a nurse helps establish a video connection and assists the patient with any hands-on equipment needed for a video visit with the virtual provider.

“Our virtual physician will be able to do an assessment of each patient virtually, through the use of advanced technology and the onsite nurse. They will develop an appropriate treatment plan, coordinate prescriptions, and a follow up care plan,” says Dawn Trompeter, president of OSF Saint Elizabeth Medical Center. “We want to offer a better experience for everyone, and qualified patients can be seen more quickly and get on the road to recovery.”

Studies also reveal prolonged emergency department wait times and length of a visit reduces quality care and increases adverse events for patients with serious illnesses. “So, the goal with introducing this new model is to improve patient care as well as our patients’ experience,” Trompeter stresses.

The virtual emergency care area is located within the hospital emergency department and includes a mobile cart equipped with two-way audio and video capabilities, making it easy to have a conversation with the remote medical provider. The mobile units have high-resolution cameras to observe symptoms or injuries more closely.

A nurse or medical staff member will assist with completing the patient assessment using the advanced digital tools on the mobile units that allow the virtual doctor to hear a patient’s breath and cardiac sounds or look more closely into the patient’s eyes and ears, just as they would do if they were physically in the room.

“We will work together to take care of patients with the same high standard of care given by our in-person physicians,” says Benjamin Kemp, MD, the lead physician for virtual emergency care.

If at any time the care team thinks someone needs to be seen in person by a doctor, they can be immediately transferred to the traditional ED.

“If a patient requires care that is too complex for virtual interaction, we will easily and seamlessly work with the in-person team to get the great care patients deserve,” Dr. Kemp emphasizes.

OSF is using several innovative approaches to reduce ED wait times and improve the overall experience, including using virtual behavioral health clinicians to make sure people with mental health issues are seen within the target goal of one hour. Additionally, research is underway to see if predictive modeling using artificial intelligence can help match staffing with surge times.

B-roll of Virtual ED

The OSF HealthCare Advanced Practice Provider (APP) Fellowship program is adding emergency medicine to the list of tracks for fellows.

The OSF HealthCare APP Fellowship is accredited with distinction as an Advanced Practice Provider Fellowship Program by the American Nursing Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation in Practice Transition Programs.

The 12-month program has more than a 97% graduation rate and offers 100% of graduates a permanent position within OSF HealthCare. The robust, cutting-edge APP Fellowship program at OSF is among the most mature of all health systems in the country.

The APP fellowship program focuses on professional growth by offering mentorship, regular feedback and skills assessment that build on the knowledge fellows learned in graduate school. At the end, they are more prepared to transition into full-time practice. OSF HealthCare is also leveraging federal grant money to extend primary care support to high-need communities with vulnerable populations, using resources such as OSF Care-A-Vans to support street medicine teams or on-site clinics.

The APP Fellowship curriculum stresses the importance of excellent communication with patients and colleagues. Other confidence-building exercises result in developing decision-making and other soft skills that often result in fellows advancing quickly to leadership positions within their area, region, or even across the OSF Ministry.

This new track in emergency medicine will allow fellows to rotate through a variety of emergency departments within our OSF HealthCare system, caring for different populations of patients in critical access hospitals to Level 1 Trauma Centers. Using the Jump Trading Simulation and Education Center, the program will provide hands-on skills training to equip new APPs for any situation they may encounter.

If interested in joining the APP fellowship program, please fill out the form here to receive more information.

Two of the biggest concerns orthopedic surgeons hear from their patients who suffer knee or hip issues are ongoing pain and lifestyle disruptions.

“A typical patient has pain in their knee or hip every single day,” says Connor Kasik, DO, an orthopedic surgeon who works at OSF HealthCare Saint Elizabeth Medical Center in Ottawa, Illinois. “The pain interferes with their activities of daily living. They can't perform activities without the pain and it’s debilitating enough that they look for surgical intervention to help them out.” 

At OSF Saint Elizabeth, advanced robotic-arm assisted joint replacement technology has become a game-changer for both patients and their care team.

The system is a Stryker Mako SmartRobotics system. This technology allows orthopedic surgeons to personalize partial knee, total knee and hip replacement procedure for patients. Doctors say the biggest advantages to using this system are better outcomes, improved accuracy and a quicker recovery for the patient.

OSF Saint Elizabeth began utilizing the Mako robotic system last year, joining other OSF hospitals that offer the technology.

“It is mostly older people that we see, however, we can see arthritis in younger patients if they have prior injuries that have caused any type of post traumatic arthritis,” says Dr. Kasik. “But it’s mostly older people with wear and tear arthritis that has occurred throughout the years.”

Robert Mitchell, DO, has been an orthopedic surgeon for nearly 30 years and provides care at OSF Saint Elizabeth.

“I saw the original evolution of total knees and total hips when it was done the old traditional method and I call that like old school carpentry where we use cutting blocks and cutting jigs and we're doing all our measurements by eyeball,” says Dr. Mitchell. “Now we've taken it a step further with computerization of total hips and total knees. Scientifically, we know how the implant should be positioned, and we've taken a lot of the (potential) human error out of putting the new implant in the human body.”

Many people opt for surgery after conservative treatment has proven unsuccessful. He says they’ve tried cortisone injections and other treatments but remain in constant pain.

According to Dr. Mitchell, the first step with the Mako system starts with a CT scan of your knee or hip joint, which is loaded into the Mako software and used to develop a 3D virtual model of your specific anatomy. The virtual model created from the CT scan helps the surgeon create a patient-specific surgical plan.

In the operating room, the surgeon guides Mako’s robotic arm to remove arthritic bone and cartilage from the knee or hip. After the removal of the diseased bone, the implant is placed into the joint.

“This Mako robotic assisted surgery allows us to use those 3D images and we can move implants around, we can position it better,” says Dr. Mitchell. “Especially for total knees, we can actually move the knee virtually and see how well it's going to move before we make any bone cuts, or we implant it.”

The greatest benefit for patients is a quicker recovery. Most people go home the next day, with some even discharged on day of surgery. Patients will continue their recovery with physical therapy and follow-up appointments with their physician.

“There's less post operative pain, their recovery is faster and their range of motion is improved,” says Dr. Kasik. “They get back to work at around six weeks, depending on the type of work they do. And then after about three months, they're feeling great and back doing their normal activities.”

Seeing patients back on their feet is rewarding for the surgeons, as well.  

“Being an orthopedic surgeon, one of the things that gives me joy and satisfaction is seeing someone walk in, either without a cane or without a walker,” says Dr. Mitchell. “The biggest thing is having them tell me that their pain is gone, that they can now walk pain free. They can do things they couldn't do before – the simple things in life, like going to the grocery store or going to church. Doing things in their house pain free.”

To learn more about the Mako Robotic Arm Assisted Surgical System, visit OSF HealthCare.

Dr. Mitchell Interview Clips

Dr. Kasik Interview Clips 

B-Roll 

As part of an ongoing commitment to transform, preserve and sustain evolving health care along the entire I-80 corridor, OSF HealthCare plans to build a new inpatient hospital in Ottawa, Ill.

OSF HealthCare intends to file a Certificate of Need (CON) application with the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board to build a new inpatient hospital facility to replace the current one in Ottawa. The new hospital will be built across the street, south of East Norris Drive (Route 6), on a vacant 31-acre plot of OSF-owned land. The current OSF HealthCare Saint Elizabeth Medical Center was built in the early 1970s and is at the end of its useful life with infrastructure challenges necessitating this decision.

“Over the past decade, OSF HealthCare has sustained and grown quality health care services in and around Ottawa,” says August Querciagrossa, CEO of the Western Region for OSF HealthCare. “When the new hospital is built, it will be reimagined as levels and types of services offered are realigned throughout the I-80 corridor. Our intent across all our I-80 communities is to ensure current and future generations have access to care locally.”

OSF HealthCare expects to submit the application to the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board by the end of March with approval for the new facility anticipated by the end of 2024. A tentative opening date is expected in late 2027.

This is a multi-year plan centered on the following future-state services.

OSF Saint Elizabeth – Ottawa Campus

The new hospital will be designed with the patient at the center of the care model. OSF Saint Elizabeth-Ottawa will have a 26-bed inpatient behavioral health unit, 12 medical/surgical beds, and a state-of-the-art surgery suite, emergency services, diagnostic imaging, and robust outpatient care services. Primary and specialty care clinics, including cardiovascular care, general surgery and OB/GYN, will continue to provide services in Ottawa.

OSF is committed to growing and expanding cancer care through the Fox River Cancer Center as part of the continuum/network with the OSF Cancer Institute in Peoria and the Patricia D. Pepe Center for Cancer Care at OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford. In addition, rehab services will be moving to the newly constructed YMCA this spring.

OSF Saint Elizabeth – Peru Campus

Due to its central location, OSF Saint Elizabeth-Peru will serve as the hub hospital within the I-80 corridor and support a full range of inpatient and outpatient services. This includes 45 medical/surgical beds, 8 ICU rooms, 11 obstetric rooms to support the regional birthing center, surgery and procedure rooms, emergency services, diagnostic imaging and robust outpatient care services.

In addition to these changes, OSF HealthCare serves residents of Mendota, Princeton, Streator, Marseilles, Spring Valley, Oglesby, Granville and Henry with a wide variety of services. “Care has advanced from traditional inpatient settings to outpatient services. These advances in medicine allow patients today to receive more efficient and effective care than previous generations experienced,” says Dawn Trompeter, president of OSF HealthCare Saint Elizabeth Medical Center. “This transformation also creates centers of excellence across various specialties, including wound care and occupational health. This is beneficial for patients because it means they are receiving focused and expert care in specific areas, ensuring better outcomes and tailored treatments for their needs, as well as recruitment and retention of high-quality clinicians and ancillary teams.”    

Heather Bomstad grew up knowing she wanted to help people who were sick and in need of care. So she followed in her aunt’s footsteps and became a registered nurse, working her way up the ranks to where she is today – chief nursing officer for OSF Healthcare Saint Elizabeth Medical Center in Ottawa, Illinois and Saint Paul Medical Center in Mendota, Illinois.

Bomstad has seen many changes over the past two decades, and now she, along with many other nursing leaders across the country, are seeking ways to combat a worrisome trend when it comes to a nursing shortage.

“The state of nursing right now is definitely gone through its challenges, especially since the pandemic started a couple of years ago," she says. "Early on we didn't know what to expect out of it and it was just a whole different vibe, but then going through it and seeing how our patients were struggling and the very, very sick, and the high volumes that we were having really took a toll on nurses, which then has really made some nurses want to leave health care in general, unfortunately. Some just needed to do something different maybe in healthcare, but just a different type of nursing, which has made shortages in various areas of nursing.”

There are approximately 3.9 million registered nurses in the U.S., but the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) predicts that more than 500,000 nurses will retired by the end of 2022. But there are other factors to the shortage as well, and the BLS estimates that more than one million new registered nurses will be needed to prevent a shortage.

“Burnout I would say is probably the number one reason that people are thinking long and hard (about leaving),"  says Bomstad. "This is stressful work and it is, but yet very gratifying work, but many are wondering if they need to do something different. It breaks my heart to see nurses go into a whole different career path when you know, they set out to take care of people early on, but it's indeed happening.”

One way OSF HealthCare is bridging that gap is turning to graduating students from its two colleges of nursing, in Peoria and Rockford. The colleges offer students a variety of degrees and practical hands-on experience that has become more vital since the beginning of the COVID pandemic.

“Years ago, you could say that when we had new graduate nurses they tended to go to more of our medical floor or surgical floors. We always wanted them to get that experience first before going to any specialty, to an ICU to an ER to a pediatric unit, OB – whatever the case may be," says Bomstad.  "But coming out of this, we're thinking differently. If their heart is set and their passion is to be in a certain specialty area, we are now hiring them into those areas.”

Health care leaders are taking a closer look at everything – including encouraging more flexible hours and work/life balance – to ensure the health and satisfaction of all nurses, both those new to the field as well as the long-tenured professionals.

Despite the many challenges, Bomstad says she wouldn’t change a thing in her career, and encourages others to seek out the many opportunities that exist in health care.

“I went into nursing to care for people and I would hope that every nurse that goes into it knows what they're getting into and that's the true reason – really caring for the patient, their families," she says. "They're coming to us in their most vulnerable time. They need that help, that communication, and it is still a very gratifying career to go into and I really hope and encourage young people to go into nursing. It is still a fabulous profession.”

The OSF colleges of nursing in Peoria and Rockford offer traditional and online BSN, MSN, and DNP degree programs for students interested in a career in nursing. The process deadline for the spring 2023 semester is December 1, 2022. For more information, visit Saint Francis Medical Center College of Nursing and Saint Anthony College of Nursing.

Interview Clips 

B-Roll 

One of the most common symptoms found in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic was the loss of smell and taste.

While many people rebound quickly from the loss of smell (most recover within 30 days), others have not. In fact, according to a recent study in the BMJ, (the medical journal of the British Medical Association), about 27 million people in the world are experiencing long-term effects of loss of smell or taste.

“There is a subset about 5%, where we're seeing the loss of smell and taste remaining longer than six months," says Angela Vezzetti, PA, a physician's assistant at OSF HealthCare, specializing in otolarynogology (the study of the ear, nose and throat). "Some studies have looked at different gene mutations in patients where they're seeing certain mutations impact the sense of smell and the recovery rates. There are a lot of studies going on right now to determine why these patients are not recovering their sense of smell and taste. One other study did note that there was a loss of tissue in the olfactory bulb of the brain that could potentially be causing this prolonged sense of loss of smell.”

The study also revealed that women were less likely to regain their sense of smell and taste than men, which Vezzetti attributes to women having a higher perception of smell than men. People who suffer from nasal congestion were also slower to recover from the loss of smell and taste.

The loss of smell has also been shown to have a significant impact when it comes to emotional and psychological well-being, especially among older people. Loss of smell can cause many emotions. It can make people feel disoriented, detached, anxious or worse. 

“I don't think a lot of people really realized the impact of loss of smell and taste, the sense of smell in general, people kind of took for granted to an extent and a lot more people have seen the really importance of smell when it comes to just taste in general," says Vezzetti. "Without the sense of smell and taste you can have aversions to certain foods, which for elderly people can lead to either a lack of desire to eat, or nutritional deficiencies, even malnutrition, because they're not getting those vitamins that they need because the food either tastes bad, or they just can't taste it at all.”

As time goes on, the medical community has developed a better understanding of how COVID-19 impacts the sense of smell and taste. That includes treatment options which have provided relief for some patients.

“The number one protocol that we recommend is something called olfactory or smell retraining, which we recommend patients take some essential oils which are a nice concentrated scent," says Vezzetti. "There are four of them that we recommend. They are a lemon, clove, eucalyptus and Rose and they smell those scents for maybe 15 seconds a day, once or twice a day and we've have seen some patients regain some of that loss of smell or diminished smell, retraining their sense of smell with these essential oils.”

This is just another reminder about the importance of getting the COVID vaccine. Medical experts believe that the vaccine may protect people from losing their sense of smell even if they get infected.

“I think people can be reassured to know that the good majority of patients with loss of smell or taste from COVID do recover either completely or partially," says Vezzetti. "And there are some things that can be done in the meantime while they're experiencing their symptoms to try to help such as smell retraining, maybe trying intranasal steroid spray to try to relieve some of that inflammation and hopefully bring back those senses. But I think that the fact that the good majority of patients have improved and are improving is a really good thing.”


 

Interview Clips