Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis Chose Humanity For Their Unique Scheduling and HR Needs

The Standardized Patient program was established in 2000 at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (“WUSM”). A standardized/simulated patient (“SP”) is an individual trained to portray a scripted patient case in a consistent manner. During an interaction with a learner, the SP presents the case history in response to questioning by the learner and/or undergoes physical examinations at the learner’s direction. Standardized patients provide valuable feedback that learners do not get anywhere else and offer a safe, controlled learning environment which is essential to learners in preparation for real patient encounters.

The program primarily works with Washington University medical learners in their 1st-4th years of school. They also work with nursing, pharmacy, occupational therapy, and experienced licensed doctors. They have one primary location with many other remote sites they send staff to.

The primary issue they faced was varying schedules for the Standardized Patient program as it works on a project by project basis. Their schedule ranges from a few times a year to a few times a month where the standardized patients were called as per the requirement for a particular project. It was also important for them to keep detailed information about physical characteristics and medical history in order to match the profile of the patient.

WUSM turned to Humanity due to its customization ability. They used to use emails, Excel and online polls to prepare and track all the activities related to the program. It was time-consuming and hard to track detailed information about the patients. Now after switching to Humanity they can prepare and track any varying or complex schedules with ease. They can now also assign skills to the staff members and easily assign appropriate staff members to the matching project. It has become really convenient for them as they can access all the data anywhere-anytime using native Humanity apps for mobile and tablet.

When asked what their favorite thing about Humanity was, Jamie Pitt, Standardized Patient Coordinator said,

The Humanity team is very happy that we are helping this unique Standardized Patient program at Washington University School of Medicine.