Clemson, Prisma Health researchers receive funding to examine health care scenarios through human factors research lens

Six teams of researchers and health care providers have received funding to improve various hospital procedures, from discharging patients to improving the efficiency of creating staff schedules through human factors research.

This research on how medical professionals work and care for patients is called human factors, and these grants are part of a new initiative from the Clemson University School of Health Research, The Clemson University Research Foundation and Prisma Health. The Human Factors Engineering Research Investment Initiative (HFE-RII) facilitates collaborative pilot research and scholarly activities to address critical needs for patients and health care providers related to clinical processes, operations, ergonomics, patient safety, provider burnout, and job satisfaction.

"Human factors research holds great promise to improve the processes and experience of giving and receiving care and improve patient and provider safety, health, and wellness outcomes," said Windsor Sherrill, Clemson University associate vice president for health research. "This area of health research is emerging as a significant collaboration between Prisma Health and Clemson and poses solutions to clinical challenges requiring cooperation between universities and health systems."

Each year-long project was funded up to $50,000.

The projects are:

Optimizing hospital discharge times

Lucia Gonzales, associate director of research for the School of Nursing, is working with nurses from Prisma Health to help revamp the process of discharging patients so they can go home or move to a rehabilitation center earlier in the day. Currently, most hospitals discharges happen in the afternoon or late evenings, making it challenging for patients to get home sooner and fill new medications the same day of discharge. Additionally, it costs more to keep patients longer than they need. The goal is to strengthen the patient-nurse team to coordinate an early return home following hospitalization.

The research team includes Kristen Dickens, director of nursing practice excellence at Prisma Health; Christine Ralyea, chief nursing officer for Prisma Health Midlands; Kristi Coker, interim chief nursing officer at Prisma Health; Veronica Deas, executive director of academic development at Prisma Health; Allison Traylor, Clemson University School of Nursing assistant professor.

Emergency clinician workstation use and ways to support technological transitions

Updates to hospital technology systems can disrupt health care professionals' workflow. Sudeep Hegde, a professor in the Clemson University Department of Industrial Engineering, and his team are working to determine the workflow of providers across three computer programs and then design user interfaces to support the workflow process and technology transitions.

The other team members include Shyam Ranganathan, assistant professor in the Clemson University School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, and Arwen Declan, MD, assistant research director in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Prisma Health.

Reducing nurse manager burden

Marissa Shuffler, Wallace R. Roy distinguished associate professor of psychology, is working with psychology and industrial engineering faculty and Prisma Health nurse managers to evaluate their roles and how to plan their schedules for maximum efficiency. In addition to patient care, nurse managers handle human resources issues, manage staff, learn new technology, attend and lead meetings, and evaluate staff performance. The team's goal is to create interventions and strategies to reduce some of these stressors nurse managers experience and design a nurse manager burden diagnostic toolkit that other departments can use to identify and address additional workload concerns and stressors.

Other team members include Dechristian Barbieri, a research assistant professor in the Clemson University Department of Industrial Engineering; Annamaria Wolf, health care team support and intervention consultant; and Kristen Dickens, director of nursing practice excellence at Prisma Health.

Implementing early mobility programs for hospital patients

Too often, a patient's mobility can decline after hospitalization. Divya Srinivasan, a Clemson University Department of Industrial Engineering professor, is working with a team of industrial engineers and Prisma Health employees and nurses to implement a new evidence-based mobility program for Prisma Health with the hope of lessening the decline. The Johns Hopkins Activity and Mobility Promotion program will be tested and evaluated to see what barriers may inhibit a system-wide adoption and how those can be overcome.

Team members include Dechristian Barbieri, a research assistant professor in the Clemson University Department of Industrial Engineering; Jackie Cha, an assistant professor in Clemson's Department of Industrial Engineering; Jessica Avilés, an assistant professor in Clemson's Department of Industrial Engineering; Anna Fleming, director of employee health and wellness at Prisma Health; Valorie Brooks, safe patient handling coordinator at Prisma Health; and Kristen Dickens, director of nursing practice excellence at Prisma Health.

Studying emergency physician workload

Clemson psychology professor Thomas Britt is working with a team of health care clinicians and professors to see how emergency medicine physician workload can be rebalanced. According to the team's past research, more than 60% of emergency physicians have reported feeling burned out in the last two years. The primary reasons have been increased workload, increased patients, additional shift work requirements, staffing shortages and prolonged periods of stress. Britt's team is working to assess the workload of clinicians in the Department of Emergency Medicine and develop a mathematical-based model for shift scheduling that would consider all the burnout factors to minimize their effects on staff.

Other team members include Vishnunarayan Prabhu, assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte; Patrick Rosopa, professor in Clemson's Department of Psychology; Emily Hirsh, MD, director of faculty development and wellness at Prisma Health in the Upstate; Kevin Taaffe, Clemson's Department of Industrial Engineering chair; Lauren Fowler, professor of neuroscience at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

Sepsis management

Industrial engineering assistant professor Jackie Cha is working to develop an AI-based clinical decision-support system integration to help health care providers effortlessly manage and prevent sepsis in hospital patients. The team will focus on an easy-to-use interface and study the barriers to clinical decision-support systems integrated into the current computer software. These decision-support systems help doctors create a treatment plan.

Other team members include Divya Srinivasan, professor in Clemson's Department of Industrial Engineering; Dechristian Barbieri, a research assistant professor in Clemson's Department of Industrial Engineering; Catherine Chang, MD, Prisma Health chief quality officer for Ambulatory and Clinical Councils; and Jeff Gerac, MD, medical informatics officer at Prisma Health.

The Clemson University School of Health Research (CUSHR) is a multidisciplinary unit facilitating health research and scholarship. Since 2013, CUSHR has been a key entity for health-related scholarship and collaboration, with more than 160 Clemson faculty engaged in health research that impacts both the local community and broader nation.

About Prisma Health

Prisma Health is a private nonprofit health company and the largest health care organization in South Carolina. The company has 29,309 team members, 18 acute and specialty hospitals, 2,827 licensed beds, 305 practice sites, and more than 5,400 employed and independent clinicians across its clinically integrated inVio Health Network. Along with this innovative network, Prisma Health serves almost 1.5 million unique patients annually in its 21-county market area that covers 50% of South Carolina. Connect with Prisma Health on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter/X. Visit www.PrismaHealth.org.

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