At Hackathon, Milwaukee VA nurse innovates with others across the country

Shannon Jensen, a registered nurse in acute care who now focuses on nurse education and performance improvement projects, was one of about 200 people to take part in the Veterans Health Hackathon in August.

Sponsored by the Veterans Health Administration’s Innovation Ecosystem along with Microsoft, the American Legion and MIT Hacking Medicine, the three-day event in Tampa, Fla., was not your typical conference.

Instead of having participants just listen to presentations, Hackathon was all about creating and delivering solutions to address current health-care challenges.

As such, participants were immediately divided into groups upon their arrival, and the groups were tasked with developing projects that would address problems in one of three tracks:

• Timely access to care.
• Optimizing enterprise-wide costs and operational efficiency.
• Improving community care coordination.

Track participants pitched ideas, and then smaller teams were formed, with each team selecting an idea to workshop. That meant creating a problem statement, a solution and a business model that would be turned into a three-minute pitch, to be presented to a team of judges on the third day.

Jensen’s team was in the second track and included a physician from Kentucky, a program analyst from Texas, an innovation specialist from Utah, a transportation coordinator from Michigan and a system redesign coordinator from Kentucky. 

“It was kind of crazy. I had never worked with these five individuals before, and we all had varying backgrounds,” Jensen said. “But we had one of the best teams I had ever worked with. Everybody brought such unique and diverse skill sets, so we were able to come up with an excellent problem statement, solution and a business case.”

Goal: Improve nurse staffing

The team’s proposal was a nurse staffing methodology, driven by data and artificial intelligence, that would pair nurses with patients based on the patients’ needs and the nurses’ strengths. In turn, it would ensure each shift had a mix of nurses with varying levels of experience and expertise. It would also consider nurses’ workload.

The top three proposals from each track were selected to advance to Make-a-thon, during which information technology specialists work with the teams to turn their ideas into reality. Make-a-thon is a virtual program, lasting 8-10 weeks, beginning in November.

While Jensen’s team didn’t make the cut, Jensen said Make-a-thon often includes other high-placing teams, and she feels her team has a shot at that. That decision will be made by Sept. 30.

One of the things that makes Hackathon unique is that it isn’t just hypothetical work; the event connected the teams with information technology specialists who could design and build the software needed to carry out the proposal and make it a reality.

Even if Jensen’s team doesn’t advance to Make-a-Thon, the members could still keep moving ahead with their idea, possibly creating a prototype that could be tested at VA sites.

Jensen said her team continues to meet virtually, refining their idea and adding to it. She said two team members have already pitched the idea to their leadership.

Commitment to innovation

Joann Jastrab, innovation specialist at the Milwaukee VA, lauded Jensen for championing performance improvement projects at the Milwaukee VA and furthering the organization’s commitment to constant improvement.

“One of the reasons innovation is doing so well at Milwaukee is that people are seeing deliverable results,” she said. “People have ideas that are translating into products, programs and services that are making a difference for Veterans. The culture here is tremendous.”

Jensen agreed, noting that while listening to different pitches at Hackathon, she realized the Milwaukee VA had already tackled a number of the problems presented and created innovative solutions.

“It made me very proud to work for Milwaukee and know that we are one of the most innovative VAs out there,” she said. “We’re really on the cutting edge of innovation and performance improvement.

“We have a really motivated staff who feel heard. … And when people feel heard, they feel comfortable speaking freely. And when they speak freely, problems come up, ideas come up, and then it’s easier to make them happen.”

Jensen said the event reinforced her role as an “implementer” — someone who likes to take ideas and make them happen.

“It was awesome and really cool,” Jensen said. “It was probably one of the coolest opportunities I’ve had while working for the VA. It made me feel like anything is possible at the VA.”