MINNEAPOLIS — M Health Fairview Masonic Children's Hospital has rolled out a new communications tool to help parents like Ryan and Anna McQuillan manage their time.
For at least a moment Wednesday afternoon, their newborn twins, James and Mary Grace, were both asleep.
"He's just always been our steady and chill one, unlike sis over there who's a little bit more feisty," their mom, Anna McQuillan said. "We always joke that it's Mary Grace's world."
"We're just living in it," their dad, Ryan McQuillan said, finishing the quote.
The McQuillan twins were born about 4 months early, when Anna was 22 weeks and 5 days pregnant, and have been in intensive care at M Health Fairview Masonic Children's Hospital the last 4.5 months.
"James weighed 1 pound, 7 ounces, and Mary Grace weighed 1 pound, 3 ounces," Anna said. "We had no idea what we were in for."
"It's both the most exciting and joyful time ever but also scariest," Ryan added.
The first-time parents say their Mary Grace had heart surgery at 1 month old, and James has a hernia surgery this Thursday.
"James lost his right hand," Anna revealed. "It'll be a strength for him though. We call it his 'lucky fin.'"
Although it's been challenging at times, the McQuillans say Q-rounds, the hospital's new communications tool, is helping put them at ease.
Dr. Mike Pitt, a professor of pediatrics with M Health Fairview Masonic Children's Hospital, cofounded it to alert families and other stakeholders of when doctors plan to make their rounds each day so that they can be there, or dial in, at the same time as the doctor.
Rather than giving people another app to download, Q-rounds works as an incoming message like the ones you get when it's time to be seated at a restaurant.
"We wanted to solve one of the most frustrating parts of being hospitalized, and it's waiting for the doctor," Pitt said. "I was sitting in a Great Clips waiting room and was able to get a text that said I was third in line for my haircut, so I could run and get coffee, but why aren't we doing that in health care?"
During an initial study period, family presence during rounds nearly tripled, Pitt says, and the hospital reports more than 1,000 families have used the call-in option alone since launching Q-rounds in spring last year.
"Families are left out of the loop all the time in medicine," Pitt said. "I don't get to say to a 7-month old, 'Tell your dad what we talked about. Tell your mom what we talked about.' I need them to be there. Yet many families can't afford to sit in the hospital all day or wait. The moment we're going to walk in, is when they're in the bathroom or cafeteria … so what we're doing is giving that time transparency.
Nurses, social workers and interpreters are using the software, too.
"Nurse presence has tripled for the entirety of rounds, which is important as nurse presence for rounds decreases harmful errors by nearly 40%," according to a press release.
Q-rounds is currently available on just 1-of-2 NICU floors at Children's, but the hospital plans to expand to the entire building within the next month. Pitt is also seeking to commercialize Q-rounds, and says fellow local hospitals have expressed interest, but says two facilities out of state are likely next in queue to roll it out: Cleveland Clinic and Texas Children's Hospital.
Meanwhile, the McQuillans are preparing to finally head home.
"Once they got to be about a month old, we weren't spending, like, 24/7 here," Anna said. "We were kind of able to go home and like get some rest … It's truly been one of my favorite parts about being at the hospital here."
They also said family, friends and hospital staff have been a huge support, and faith. Ironically, Anna was working in a NICU before giving birth. While she's no longer working at this time, Ryan works remotely, allowing him to be at the hospital more frequently. He recently wrote a touching song for the twins and posted a video for it on YouTube that has been viewed more than 80,000 times.
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