San Francisco-based Dignity Health is offering assistance to expectant mothers with a pilot program using trained nonclinical staff. It’s part of the ever increasing use of non-physician clinicians and non-clinicians to address the increasing service and cost challenges of medicine today.
The program, to be piloted at Dignity Health’s Marian Regional Medical Center, in Santa Maria, Calif., and at Chandler (Ariz.) Regional Medical Center, will use software to help those staff members, called docents, work with patients during their cares at no extra charge to patients.
“Docents will work in conjunction with our clinical care teams, but their roles will differ notably,” says Rich Roth, chief strategic innovation officer at Dignity Health, told Hospitals & Health Networks. “Docents will be fully focused on cultivating relationships with patients and learning their preferences so that we can provide a patient experience that meets the individual needs of the mother-to-be.”
Mr. Roth said that the docents would use technology combined with kindly care to create customized “patient journeys” that take into consideration individuals’ medical histories, preferences and concerns.
“The focus is on an issue most health systems prioritize – to transform the patient experience,’’ Paul Roscoe, CEO of Docent Health, the 18-month-old company providing technology and services to Dignity for the program. He added that many of the docents have a customer-service background, including in the hospitality industry.
Mr. Roth said that Dignity Health, which operates in 22 states, may expand the service to other clinical departments, depending on the pilot program’s results.
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