In the complex world of healthcare, communication is paramount. Yet, the simple question, “When will the doctor be here?” often remains unanswered, leaving hospitalized patients and their families in a state of anxious uncertainty. This pain point is what drove CEO/Founder Michael Pitt, MD, to envision Q-rounds, a software solution that benefits families and the hospital systems that serve them.
From Soda Sales and Magic to Medicine
From an early age, Dr. Michael Pitt has been an entrepreneur—from selling sodas out of a wagon to thirsty vacationers on Sanibel Island to performing magic four nights a week in restaurants and at corporate events from the age of eight through medical school.
“I started filing taxes at 12, and as long as I can remember, I’ve always had a side hustle,” Pitt explained. “I went to medical school but majored in English because I felt that anybody could learn the science, but the communication challenges of medicine are more interesting to me.”
Today, as a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota and a pediatric hospitalist at M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital, Pitt brings a unique blend of clinical expertise and entrepreneurial spirit to Q-rounds. His journey is marked by a lifelong dedication to communication, and his clinical work and research have consistently centered on effective teaching and health literacy.
His experience as a physician and a family member of patients made him acutely aware of the communication challenges within healthcare. It’s this awareness that led to the development of Q-rounds, a solution born from a simple yet profound observation:
“We’ve come to expect time transparency in nearly every area of our lives, whether it’s where we are in the queue for a haircut or the status of our pizza delivery. Yet, when it matters the most in the hospital, when it’s literally life or death? We just sit and wait.”
Streamlining Communications, Improving Care Coordination
Q-rounds is a software platform designed to integrate with electronic health records (EHRs), letting doctors efficiently manage and communicate their rounding schedules. Q-rounds optimizes scheduling by suggesting the most effective rounding order, considering factors such as nurse assignments and patient acuity—ensuring that scheduling is efficient and aligned with patient care priorities. Once the rounding order is created, the platform provides real-time updates to the entire care team—nurses, social workers, pharmacists, interpreters, and families via text. The family can RSVP to join rounds in person or virtually when the doctor arrives.
Multidisciplinary coordination is enhanced through seamless integration with the EHR, ensuring that all relevant parties are informed. Healthcare team members have real-time access to the rounding schedule, promoting clear information exchange and improved collaboration.
Q-rounds improves communication and the patient/family experience. With real-time updates on the doctor’s location and estimated arrival time, the platform helps reduce uncertainty and ease anxiety for family members. Q-rounds also facilitates virtual family participation when in-person attendance is not possible, including access to interpreter services to ensure inclusivity. This feature empowers families to stay engaged and informed, regardless of location.
Q-rounds optimizes multidisciplinary rounds, improves care team engagement, and helps reduce medical errors. “We are making the best practice of multidisciplinary family-centered rounding an achievable standard of care,” Pitt states.
Demonstrating Impact and Fueling Growth
Q-rounds’ first proving ground has been M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital. For the 20 months that Q-rounds has been in use in the neonatal intensive care unit, there hasn’t been a single day that doctors haven’t chosen to use the platform. Notably, formal family complaints related to communication have dropped to zero since the platform’s implementation.
A published research study also shows that with Q-rounds, nurses were present at rounds 90% of the time, while the national average is a dismal 5%. That single factor can significantly reduce medical errors by 40% and improve care team engagement.
Strong acceptance from physicians, positive impacts on care coordination, and increased patient/family satisfaction are leading to new opportunities. Q-rounds is currently piloting in its first adult setting at Ridges Hospital and is preparing for a system-wide rollout at M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital. The platform is also gaining traction outside Minnesota and will expand into two additional large hospital systems this year.
Candid Guidance to Empower Growth
Pitt has been a part of the MESA Mentoring Program for a year and a half, and he credits MESA with providing invaluable support and insight. “I crave expertise and have loved to learn what I don’t know,” he says.
Every month, MESA Mentors Aric Bandy and Doug Bechtold offer practical advice and strategic guidance based on real-world experience on topics ranging from job descriptions and HR challenges to security assessments and navigating the complexities of entrepreneurship.
“The most valuable thing about MESA is radical candor,” Pitt explains. “I can be vulnerable, bring anything to the table, and I don’t have to impress anyone.”
MESA Mentor Aric Bandy shares, “Q-rounds isn’t just a smart solution—it’s a transformative shift toward empathy-driven care coordination. Reaching that kind of impact is never easy. Starting and scaling a company is a constant series of challenges, which is exactly why MESA exists—to help turn vision into velocity.”
Bandy continues, “As a founder, you’re always navigating unknowns, and having experienced voices in the room can accelerate clarity and confidence. Michael listens with intention, acts with purpose, and his coachability has been a key driver of Q-rounds’ momentum.”
A Vision for Seamless, Connected Care
Pitt has long recognized that because healthcare is a team sport, effective patient care hinges not only on medical knowledge but also on clear communication and coordination.
To that end, Q-rounds’ mission is to empower patients and healthcare organizations with time transparency and increased system efficiency that will facilitate the best care experiences and outcomes. The company’s vision is a world where healthcare teams are perfectly in sync with patients and their families through efficient and coordinated connections, and that Q-rounds becomes the standard of care. These tenets will continue to guide new customer growth and the expansion of the platform’s features.
Q-rounds represents a significant step toward delivering coordinated care, bridging the communication gap in healthcare, and ensuring that patients and their families are informed and involved in their care journey.
