M7 Health

It was great chatting with Patty Enrado on the HIMSSCast podcast. At #HIMSS2024, I participated in the NursePitch competition, where several nurse entrepreneurs shared their innovations and entrepreneurial journeys. M7 Health was fortunate enough to win the competition, and I was asked to speak about my experience on the HIMSSCast podcast this month. The podcast link is in the comments below, but here is the TL;DR version. 1️⃣ Attitude of gratitude It was an honor to be selected, but I wouldn’t have made it this far without great mentors. A special shoutout to Lisa Stephenson, Whende M. Carroll, MSN, RN, NI-BC, and Taylor Diani, MBA, MSN, RN, for being great coaches. I also feel privileged to meet and spend time with my fellow finalists, Colin Plover and Patience Gitau. 2️⃣ NursePitch itself is the win Nurses are the largest sector of the healthcare workforce. The recognition of nurse-led innovation by HIMSS is a significant milestone for the nursing community. Dedicating the NursePitch session to nurse entrepreneurship underscores nurses' vital role in the broader healthcare ecosystem. 3️⃣ Good solutions start with messy problems. When I was a nurse, a phenomenal nurse owned scheduling. She spent a huge amount of time on it every month. I always thought it was a shame that an experienced nurse had to spend so much time on scheduling instead of spending more time with patients, new nurses, or working on quality initiatives. This led to the idea for M7 Health. 4️⃣ Trust is the cornerstone for change You’d think a new solution that involves more efficient scheduling and more satisfied staff would be an easy sell. No matter how great your product is, convincing healthcare executives to deviate from incumbent processes to do something different and unproven is a massive challenge. You must establish trust to find early believers who are willing to take a calculated risk and give innovation a chance. 5️⃣ Nurses are trained to be great entrepreneurs We are constantly operating with imperfect information. We make decisions on behalf of our patients' well-being under enormous pressure and with limited time. Without all the answers, we make our best decision for the patient. If that solution doesn't work, we try something else. That is the crux of entrepreneurship. 6️⃣ Start entrepreneurship in small steps If you are a nurse who wants to be an entrepreneur, don’t get stuck ideating. Start testing in an analog way. You don’t need to quit your job and hire an engineer to build an app. We found nurses who were willing to share their scheduling preference papers with us. From that, we built schedule report prototypes in Excel and PowerPoint. Enough nurses loved the outcome that we decided to build software around it When there is enough market pull, you can consider quitting your job and raising capital. –-- Thank you HIMSS for allowing me to share my story! #nurseentrepreneurs #nurseledinnovation

I’m so proud of Johnson & Johnson Nurse Innovation Fellows Ena Williams, PhD, MBA, RN, CENP, FAAN and Jeannette Bronsord DNP, MSN, MS, RN, NEA-BC from Yale New Haven Health. The J&J Nurse Fellowship is a year-long program that helps bring innovation to the nursing profession via nurse leaders at leading hospitals. During the program, participants identify a problem within their own system and leverage the human-centered design skills they learn through the program to prototype a solution. The culmination of the program is a pitch to 200+ nursing leaders. The presentations were phenomenal. I participated in the program as a mentor and pitch coach. Ena, Chief Nursing Officer, and Jeannette, Executive Director of Surgical Services, prototyped an AI-driven patient assignment generator that alleviates charge nurses of the daunting task of assigning patients equitably and fairly. The tool makes sure new nurses are not overwhelmed and still learning… While protecting senior nurses from burnout caused by always caring for the the “heaviest” patients.   What impressed me the most was how Ena and Jeannette involved their team. They brought a group of 20+ front-line staff together on a regular basis over the course of the year to unpack the problem(s) at hand, clearly define the desired outcome, and create several iterations of a prototype. Their project exemplified human-centered design. And I can’t wait to see how the initiative and product evolve from here. I am so thankful to have gotten to know them through this program. They were amazing “students” of nurse-led innovation and entrepreneurship. And as an entrepreneur serving nurse leaders just like them, I learned so much from them.    Congrats on an amazing pitch and successful fellowship! #nurseledinnovation #nurseleaders  

We are thrilled to announce that another incredible software engineer recently joined the M7 Health team. Jared Benskins - we are so lucky to have you onboard! 🚀 ✨What drew you to M7? I was drawn to M7 almost immediately after hearing from Ilana and Eric about all the exciting and impactful work going on here. I knew I wanted to work at a company that made me excited about logging on every morning and where my hard work would have a noticeable impact in the real world. M7 perfectly aligned with these goals since the work we do every day has such huge potential to benefit the lives of so many people who work in and rely on the healthcare industry. I was also drawn to the amazing team here that from the beginning has been kind, helpful and always a joy to interact with. ✨What is your favorite thing about your job/ working at M7?* My favorite thing about working at M7 so far is how much I've learned about the healthcare industry. There's so much that goes on behind the scenes of healthcare that I had no idea about previously. And learning about all the intricate problems that exist today has driven me even further into believing in the need for M7 and the opportunity that we have to bring immense positive changes to healthcare. ✨What are your favorite activities outside of work? Outside of work I love to explore in nature. I try to spend as much time outside as possible and am always on a hunt to find beautiful places. I do a lot of hiking and camping usually when I travel to places like Colorado, and have a passion for action sports such as skateboarding and snowboarding. ✨Tell us a surprising or a fun fact about yourself. A fun fact about myself is that I'm absolutely obsessed with Indian food

It’s become a loaded topic, but here’s what I think about the use of AI in the nursing profession. To start, I am still researching and learning. I don’t have it all figured out yet. No one does. However, I think AI is a massive opportunity to free nursing from administrative burdens. Administrative tasks like staffing and scheduling are the safest areas to add AI into current nursing workflows. Who can argue against doing less of this tedious yet stressful and highly impactful work? Let AI analyze individual preferences and clinical needs to create operational efficiency. This can unlock flexible and transparent scheduling for nurses and better financial outcomes for hospitals. Less paperwork means more hands-on patient care and training. There are so many inherently human elements to what nurses do that the current state of AI cannot replace. However, that is all the more reason to leverage the power of AI to free nurses from the endless administrative responsibilities that have fallen on us. AI, in its current state, has the power to give us more time and space to do what we are uniquely capable of doing for patients. It is early days, but governing bodies are gathering to test AI models and explore the thornier topics of AI, such as ethics. Nurses must have a seat at this table, just like the administrators, doctors, and insurance companies do. I’m learning like all of you, but I see the potential. It’s on us to keep learning and ensure we are part of that conversation. #nurseinnovation #nursingAI #nursesonlinkedin

One of my favorite sessions from HIMSS was focused on implementing new tech for the nursing workforce. April Saathoff DNP, RN, NI-BC, CPHIMS, Chief Nursing Information Officer at Johns Hopkins Medicine pointed out that the nursing profession is at a critical crossroads. Staffing shortages and the rise of AI are the “perfect storm” for nursing to innovate. Tools (like M7 Health) are starting to arrive that drive efficiency in nursing operations, care quality, and patient satisfaction. However, changes to nursing workflows and implementing new technology is hard. To that end, April shared the concept of the 6 domains of influence and how they pertain to successful change management. Each of these domains is itself a powerful model for change. 1️⃣ Personal Motivation – whether you want to do something. As a nurse leader in this situation, you are charged with making the undesirable desirable. Here you want to connect the change to the individual's values. 2️⃣ Personal Ability – whether you can do something. The goal here is to get nurses to surpass their limits. For this to work, nurse leaders should institute deliberate practice. 3️⃣ Social Motivation – whether other people encourage the right behaviors. For social motivation, the idea is to create (positive) peer pressure to support the change initiative. Nurse leaders do this by leading by example. 4️⃣ Social Ability – whether other people provide help, information or resources. To create social ability, nurse managers should seek to build strength in numbers. They can do this by enlisting people who motivate and enable others to their cause. 5️⃣ Structural Motivation – whether the environment encourages the right behaviors. Structural motivation is about designing a rewards system and demanding accountability. This is as simple as linking rewards to vital behavior and calling out failure to adopt behavior. 6️⃣ Structural Ability – whether the environment supports the right behaviors. Creating structural ability is about changing the environment. Nurse leaders can do this with prompts, reminders, and supporting tools. You can learn more about these concepts in the book, The Influencer by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzer. Thanks April for the recommendation and insight #changemanagement #nursingtech #HIMSS2024

Check out the story of our fearless leader, Ilana Borkenstein RN, MBA. Happy #NursesWeek!

During #NationalNursesWeek, I want to recognize Tammy St. Clair, one of M7’s earliest supporters and pilot users. Tammy is the Nurse Manager for 100+ nurses in the Behavioral Health unit at Palestine Regional Medical Center. Tammy’s dedication to the nursing profession is remarkable. She leans into innovation and embraces change for the good of her staff, patients, and local community. The arc of progress is slow in hospital systems, where new technology and change management are high stakes. So adopting M7 Health, tools like it, or even analog methods to fix suboptimal processes is the ultimate form of nurse-led innovation. Tammy sat down with me and Eric Gruskin, to answer a few questions in honor of #NursesWeek! ⭐️How did you get into #nursing? I started my career working as an aide in an assisted living facility. I absolutely fell in love with the residents and saw that the nurses there had great careers. ⭐️What drew you to psychiatric nursing? I started my nursing career in the emergency department, where many psych patients came through. They were regulars. Once they left, I never knew how they were doing until they came back again. I loved those patients and wanted to help them so I just followed the patients. I love what I do. ⭐️How long have you been a nurse? I became a licensed vocational nurse (LVN) in 2005, got my bachelors degree (BSN) in 2009, and became a manager in 2021. The beauty of nursing is that you always have a chance to learn and grow. ⭐️You’ve been at Palestine Regional a long time! What does PRMC mean to the community? Because we are a small, rural community hospital, we are truly the center of the community's health needs. We’re here for our neighbors when they’re in crisis, when their babies are born, and everything in between. It’s just a very special place. ⭐️How has M7 impacted your manager experience ? It enables me to easily craft schedules that honor staff’s personal needs. M7 has freed up a huge amount of my time. It allows me to spend more time educating and supporting staff, which is really the fun part of my job! In psych, there are so many regulations, and the more education I provide, the stronger my staff is and the better patient care we deliver. ⭐️How has M7 impacted the nurses on your unit? M7 plays a vital role in enabling our nurses to achieve work-life balance. They can attend their children’s basketball games, care for elderly parents, go to doctor appointments without using vacation time. They can care for their family needs and still be productive here at work. ⭐️How has it felt to be part of nurse-led innovation? It has truly been exciting! It has been very rewarding to voice my opinions and see them reflected in the platform. This is the first time it feels like a company has really listened to me. And I never have to wait on hold!! Tammy - It’s a pleasure partnering with you and your team. Happy Nurses Week!! #nursesonlinkedin

In celebration of National Nurses Week, M7 has partnered with Care+Wear to show our appreciation for all that our users do for their patients and communities! It’s not every week that we pause to celebrate all of the wonderful nurses and nursing support staff on the M7 Health’s platform To celebrate National Nurses Week, we are partnering with Care+Wear to give back to nurses using M7 every day. Care+Wear is a functional and stylish healthwear brand that creates positive and effective healing experiences for nurses and patients alike. I love what they are doing and am so excited to partner with them. For this week, there is a special Care+Wear banner inside the M7 app with a special code to use on the Care+Wear website. This is another example of ways M7 helps health systems demonstrate their commitment to nurses and their work-life needs If you are a hospital system that wants to show support to your nurses, M7 Health is here to help you. Our support doesn’t stop at scheduling – we pride ourselves in building better work environments and experiences for nurses. This is the ultimate form of year-round support that the nursing profession needs today. In a sense, at hospitals with M7, every week is Nurses Week. Happy National Nurses Week! #NursesWeek #nursesonlinkedin #nursing

We are so lucky to have Asher Dubin joining the M7 team!  What drew you to M7? Many factors attracted me to M7, but the most significant was the unequivocal vote of confidence from friends and family, particularly those in healthcare, who instinctively understood that M7 is a clear solution addressing an enduring issue within the healthcare industry. The undeniable appeal of M7 and its ability to quickly drive impact for both nurses and hospital systems alike made me eager to roll up my sleeves and be a part of building a powerful experience. What is your favorite thing about your job/working at M7? Since it’s hard to choose, I’ll share my top three favorite things about my role / working at M7: Engagement with Users: I'm eager to engage directly with our users, understanding their day-to-day experiences and incorporating their feedback into our product development process. Team Collaboration: The team has been a dream to work with throughout my consultancy and through the first week as a full-timer at M7, and I’m looking forward to continuing to collaborate on and dedicate our focus towards bettering our user’s experience. Igniting Change in an Evolving Domain: We're in an industry that's itching for an update, and I'm eager to join M7 as we navigate growing within this exciting landscape while keeping sustainability front and center. Favorite activities outside of work? Outside the office, I'm on a mission to read 30 books this year (currently at 18), catching the newest Oscar contenders at the movies (thanks, AMC A-List!), and traveling to new places whenever possible. Tell us a surprising or a fun fact about yourself I’m a triplet! --- Welcome to the M7 Health team Asher!

Flexible nursing shifts are gaining traction. I recently read a great article in Becker's Healthcare by Mariah Taylor. It discusses how Mercy Health's St Rita’s Medical Center in Lima, Ohio, is using “creative shifts” that fit the diverse needs of its staff. The system allows for unconventional shifts such as:   ▪  12-hour shifts starting at any time   ▪  9 a.m. to 5 p.m. schedules   ▪  Schedules for new mothers.   ▪  Flexibility with weekend shifts. The flexibility is available for everyone. And the results are solid. The flexible scheduling has helped reduce nurse turnover rates from 23% during the height of the pandemic to 12.5% today, she said. Congrats Cory Werts and the Mercy Health system. This is progress. My big question about this great success story is whether they used technology to achieve these stellar results. According to the article, the hospital utilizes a centralized staffing and scheduling department - likely a group of people. Scheduling the old-fashioned way is hard work—there are dozens of ever-changing moving pieces, which makes it difficult for humans to keep up and maximize efficiency. I’d love to learn more about their approach, which led to such a great outcome! I am proud to share that M7 Health is helping hospitals achieve outcomes like St. Rita’s Medical Center’s - without increasing headcount. M7 leverages staff preference data to devise staffing models that include non-traditional shift types to meet the workforce’s work-life needs. We’re making nurses’ jobs more sustainable and helping hospitals stabilize their workforce to meet patients’ needs. #nursinginnovation #nursesonlinkedin