Apprentice is a web-based, workflow-oriented platform for comprehensive inpatient management. It is designed to increase productivity and safety in inpatient settings while providing the framework for patient-oriented communication between providers.

Apprentice optimizes collaboration within a medical team, using shared patient summaries and shared clinical task lists. Team members can view patients’ current clinical status, track pending tests and evaluations, and monitor team progress on shared tasks.

Apprentice manages sign-outs and care handoffs with seamless continuity using a novel, electronic model that follows the nationally-recognized, research-based IPASS standards. Drawing from existing electronic call coverage schedules, it allows scheduled assignment of a provider’s patient lists and tasks to a covering physician or the provider on call.

Apprentice facilitates inpatient rounds by summarizing patients’ recent clinical events, active medications, and current laboratory values. This information can also be used to generate progress note templates.

It is currently in use at Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Faulkner Hospital, and Newton Wellesley Hospital.

Key features

• connects to existing data sources and highlights new and relevant data
• leverages existing patient lists and simplifies access to patient census and location information
• provides convenient access to family member contact information
• connects to hospital paging system and important hospital contacts and phone numbers
• speeds rounding and provides point-of-care data for cross-coverage
• allows for creation of to-do lists from web or mobile
• shares task lists automatically with all involved caregivers or members of a team
• monitors task progress in real-time
• facilitates handoffs by adding outstanding tasks to covering physicians’ lists
• automates team list updates, pulling from existing databases