Author Archives: Jack Fitzpatrick

About Jack Fitzpatrick

Jack Fitzpatrick is a senior financial executive with 20 years of experience in a broad range of finance, accounting, strategic planning, human resources, information systems, and other administrative areas. With 15 years of experience with emerging growth companies in a variety of industries, he successfully addressed the management challenges of rapid growth. Jack has a proven track record in the financing activities of startup and rapid-growth companies including IPO's, venture capital financing, licensing agreements, and mergers and acquisitions. Most recently as Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Finance and Administration with Discovery Partners (Nasdaq: DPII), he raised $29 million in private equity funding, completed five acquisitions valued at $60 million, and completed a $103 million IPO. Prior to Discovery Partners, Jack worked with companies such as Broadband Innovations, Inc., Diatok, LP, and Pacific Data Products where he was responsible for developing the financial infrastructure and fund raising. Jack earned a B.A. of Applied Mathematics and a MS in Computer Science at Harvard University where he also received his MBA in Finance.

• The Goldilocks Challenge: Is the patient room too hot? Too cold? or just right?!

  3/14/2012 | Jack Fitzpatrick

  Patient room temperature appears on every top 10 list of patient complaints.  Part of the challenge is that there is no single “correct” temperature setting.  Some patients like it warmer, while others like it cooler.  And often the same patient may want it warmer at one moment and cooler the next, based on medications and other factors.

  At most of the hospitals I’ve dealt with, changing the temperature in a patient room is a cumbersome process:  (1) the patient pushes the nurse call button, (2) the nurse responds to the call button, (3) the nurse forwards the request to the Facilities Department, and (4) Facilities actually adjusts the temperature setting for the room.  This process occurs many, many times a day; every day of the year.

  Skylight recently provided patients at a hospital client in Arizona with the ability to directly adjust their room temperature through Skylight’s CareNavigator system that runs on the patient room TV.  With just a few simple clicks on the pillow speaker pendant guided by easy-to-follow graphics on the TV, the patient can adjust the room temperature up or down by 1-3 degrees. Continue reading →

  Posted in:  Operations and Integration  |  Tagged hcahps, interactive patient systems, johnson controls, patient comfort, patient empowerment, patient engagement, patient satisfaction, skylight healthcare, temperature controls  |  Leave a reply

• Value-Based-Purchasing Program Offers Biggest Bang for the Buck

  1/18/2012 | Jack Fitzpatrick

  With so many CMS reimbursement dollars at risk based on various hospital performance metrics, it’s hard to know where to focus first.  Clearly all of the quality measures address important aspects of healthcare.  But given the already full plates that hospitals currently have on their tables, some form of prioritization is a necessity.

  One straightforward way to prioritize efforts is with the classical “biggest bang for the buck” approach.  How do the various initiatives rank in terms of potential financial impact on the organization? Continue reading →

  Posted in:  Operations and Integration  |  Leave a reply

• When You Think of the Optimum Patient Experience, You Don’t Usually Think of World Wrestling

  1/11/2012 | Jack Fitzpatrick

  Health care seems to attract people that care about other people.  I was reminded of this the other day when I heard a story about a terminally ill boy:

  Michael was a sweet, 12 year old boy who was diagnosed with AML (Acute Myeloid Leukemia). While receiving end of life treatment at a Skylight client hospital, Michael, being a huge wrestling fan, had just one wish: to watch the WWE Wrestling Event on Pay-Per-View. The hospital network was not equipped to receive Pay-Per-View events so they turned to Skylight. Skylight’s on-site client support team, Shelley Rapp and Johnny Gonzalez immediately went to work, coordinating with Bright House Networks, the local cable company, the hospital facility’s engineers and the Skylight IT team in San Diego, CA. Continue reading →

  Posted in:  Patient Experience  |  Tagged interactive patient care systems, patient experience, patient satisfaction  |  Leave a reply