New York, NY -- On Monday, November 8th, innovative healthwear company Care+Wear hosted the second installment of their webinar series, entitled “A Symptom of the Pandemic - Accelerating Patient-Focused Care & Healthcare Consumerism.” Care+Wear brought together leaders in patient-centered care to discuss how the pandemic augmented their approach to healthcare consumerism.
For the past several years, a conversation has been brewing about how to propel healthcare forward by empowering patients with more choice, more autonomy, and more transparency on how to navigate the oftentimes convoluted and complicated traditional hospitals and health systems. After nearly two years of grappling with the pandemic - which caused healthcare systems and clinicians to stretch themselves to meet the overwhelming demand of the virus, as well as patients to express concern about re-entering hospitals - new and refined solutions have emerged to help better serve patients, improving healthcare delivery and transparency at all levels.
Moderated by CEO & Founder of Care+Wear Chat Razdan, the discussion featured panelists well-versed in patient experience, patient safety, and healthcare consumerism, including:
- Nicole Benincasa, MS, LMHC, Senior Director, Patient Experience and Patient and Family Centered Care, North Shore University Hospital, Northwell Health, Manhasset, NY
- Diane Reidy-Lagunes, MD, Associate Deputy Physician of the Regional Care Network and President, Medical Staff, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
- Jody K. Reyes, MSBA, BSN, OCN, Interim Chief Operating Officer, UVA Health, Charlottesville, VA
Unilaterally, panelists agreed that communication and innovation are the key threads to enhancing the patient experience and enabling healthcare consumerism. According to Dr. Reidy-Lagunes, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, communicating safety protocols was the first attempt to alleviate fear and nervousness when patients entered the hospital. Ms. Benincasa echoed that communication and trust are the foundation of the healthcare system. Ms. Reyes emphasized the importance of leveraging feedback from patient and caregiver councils to continually innovate the healthcare experience.
Innovation in pursuit of meeting patients where they are - both to deliver care and to access data - was a key theme across the three panelists. In an antiquated healthcare system that is replete with red tape, the True North is to deliver quality, patient-centered care. Reyes says: “It cannot be overstated how complicated the world of healthcare has gotten. Hospitals are full of leaders - team members - that want to get this right. It’s why we do what we do...it keeps us coming back, wanting to do better, wanting to learn more, wanting to meet your expectations.”
A video recording of the webinar can be found here.
About Care+Wear
Care+Wear is a healthwear company focused on reimaging how the world looks at and feels about healthcare by bridging fashion and function to create a more human healthcare experience for both patients and clinicians. Founded in 2014, Care+Wear works to promote dignity, style, and comfort through the creation of thoughtful products, designed in collaboration with clinicians, patients, designers, and manufacturers. Their products, which include post-surgical recovery bras and PICC line covers for chronic care patients, to Oscar de la Renta port access hoodies, patient gowns, PPE, and more, are used in more than 80 hospital systems and governments globally including the Mayo Clinic, Department of Veterans Affairs, University of Virginia Health, Massachusetts General Brigham’s, Kaiser Permanente, and more. For more information, visit www.careandwear.com.
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