Discover Nursing: Helping Nurses Make Bigger Changes for their Smallest Patients

CHAMP App

Advances in technology are helping healthcare providers improve outcomes for patients of all ages. At the Ward Family Heart Center at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., using an inter-disciplinary team called CHAMP® (Cardiac High Acuity Monitoring Program), nurses like Lori Erickson, MSN, CPNP-PC, CHAMP clinical program manager, are saving lives of babies born with single ventricle heart disease who are in the critical inter-stage period between the first and second stages of surgery.

CHAMP provides families with a tablet PC that has a proprietary app installed to enable nearly-instantaneous in-home monitoring and to improve communication during this vulnerable time, while allowing the infants and their families to spend more time at home. We had the chance to speak with Lori about the program, the importance of technology in nursing, the future of patient care, and more.

Nursing Notes (NN): Can you share a little bit about your nursing background and what led you to your current position?

Lori Erickson: I have always been intrigued by the hemodynamic process and true strength of the infants with congenital heart disease. I started working as a single ventricle and fetal cardiology Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) position at Children’s Mercy in 2012, and transitioned to the CHAMP single ventricle APRN as both programs expanded in July 2017.

NN: Can you tell us about the development of CHAMP® and how you got involved?

Lori: The basis of CHAMP started from the concept of inter-stage home monitoring for infants with single ventricles care in the first year of life. CHAMP infants are at risk of sudden events, including death, at home in the first months of life, so this technology is on the forefront of care improvement. This program uses an application on a mobile device at home to transfer data to the inter-stage cardiac team in the hospital, leveraging cloud-based technology.

Read the full article via Discover Nursing.

Learn more about Children's Mercy's CHAMP® Program.

Learn more about the services offered through the Ward Family Heart Center at Children's Mercy.