Get Me Outta Here: An Interactive Board Game for Interprofessional Learning About Hospital Discharges and Patient-centeredness Created by I-MPACT (Integrated Michigan Patient-centered Alliance for Care Transitions)

Re-admissions continue to plague our healthcare systems, and confusing discharge processes can be a factor in unintentional errors and increased ED/hospital utilization. To address these issues, I-MPACT, a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan collaborative quality initiative, assembles hospitals and physician organizations to work as local “clusters” with patient participants to develop viable interventions.

To aid in forming these new cross-institutional and interdisciplinary teams for quality improvement, I-MPACT provides experiential education through an interactive board game called "Get Me Outta Here!" Designed by Integrative Design students at the University of Michigan, in conjunction with the I-MPACT team, this team-based collaborative game simulates the discharge process and is based on observations and interviews. Choosing professional roles different from their usual work, including the role of patient, participants’ complete role-specific sequential tasks with the clear objective to discharge three patients as efficiently as possible.

The game functions both to provide a team-building exercise for members from diverse disciplines, roles, and organizations (including frontline staff, administrators, quality improvement specialists, and patients) as well as to stimulate a learning environment and nuanced discussion about respective roles of healthcare providers and patients involved in the system, along with the importance of explicit communication. The shared experience prepares teams to identify complexities and potential pitfalls that might lead to readmissions
In a survey about participants’ experiences with the game soon after gameplay, 96% (25/26 survey respondents) felt it was moderately to extremely valuable for identifying and addressing care transitions issues, and 83% (28/34 survey respondents) agreed that it was a credible simulation of the complexities of the discharge process.

This novel interactive board game can serve as an educational tool in an interprofessional healthcare education curriculum. Currently, training (for physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, social workers, nurses, pharmacists, hospital administrators, care managers) does not provide the opportunity to simulate a discharge process prior to performing one. If trainees are given the opportunity to work together and appreciate the discharge process in this interactive simulated scenario, they will be able to develop different attitudes, behaviors, and skills to work together to change our processes for the better.