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Unless your ED is planning an expansion, the amount of space you have to work with is finite. However, as the leadership team at Jersey City (NJ) Medical Center has shown, creative use of that space can significantly improve your department's capacity and help slash wait times and the number of patients who leave without being seen. In less than a year, average wait times went from 3-4 hours to 30 minutes, and the left without being seen (LWBS) rate went from 6% to 1.5%.
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In the first phase of a two-phase process, paramedics with Grady Emergency Medical Services in Atlanta now have the option of transporting patients with less-urgent ailments to Grady Health System clinics instead of the ED. Emergency leaders believe this strategy will provide the most appropriate care for these patients and help alleviate some ED crowding.
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You may think that because you're a case manager, you don't need to be aware of the implementation of the new International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) codes. Or you may think that since they don't take effect until Oct. 1, 2013, you don't have to worry about them yet.
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Hospitals will be hearing a great deal more about care transitions and reducing readmissions in coming years. Discharge planners and hospitalist leaders will be searching for models that are affordable, effective, and sustainable.
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Since DCH Regional Medical Center in Tuscaloosa, AL, and the Alabama Quality Assurance Foundation began collaborating on a Medicare demonstration project to determine the most effective ways to reduce readmissions for Medicare patients, the hospital has increased its referrals to home care, nursing homes, community resources, and medication assistance programs.
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Frustrated patients, core measures that require timely intervention, and optimizing house beds. Those are the issues Bay Medical Center in Panama City, FL, decided it was going to deal when it hired a consultant in 2008.
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As a result of a joint initiative to improve bed capacity, Fort Sanders Regional Hospital and Parkwest Hospital in Tennessee reduced discharge delays, increased discharges between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. by 8%, and consequently reduced the amount of time patients in the emergency department wait for inpatient beds from 70 minutes to less than 30 minutes.
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Cuts in reimbursement and new reporting of quality measures contained in the proposed rule for the Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) make it more important than ever for documentation to be accurate and complete, says Deborah Hale, CCS, president of Administrative Consultant Services LLC, a health care consulting firm based in Shawnee, OK.
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Improved communication, coordination, and collaboration among all members of the treatment team is the key to improving patient throughput, says Roxanne Tackett, RN, MBA, vice presidential of clinical services for Compirion Healthcare Solutions, a health care consulting firm with headquarters in Elk Grove, WI.
