by
Lauren Dubinsky, Senior Reporter | December 11, 2014
From the December 2014 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Crushing wait times
Overcrowding in the ED often leads to longer wait times and more patient walkouts, but some hospitals are starting to implement a comprehensive communications platform called PerfectServe to curb that. The platform is used to alert key staff members in the hospital and EMS teams that they are needed when ED wait times get too high.
St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Michigan has an annual ED census that has risen 15 percent in two years to over 108,000 patients. In order to quell overcrowding, they developed ED-managed Clinical Decision Units (CDUs) that connected the ED and their inpatient services.
Patients cannot stay in the CDUs longer than 24 hours otherwise they will be billed as outpatients so it’s imperative that they have error-free clinical communication. To do that they implemented PerfectServe to make sure that any calls and messages for the physicians are sent to them based on their preferences and schedules. “What we have seen is that by speeding those communication cycle times, you’re not only able to improve throughput, but you’re able to reduce the number of patients who leave against medical advice and also increase the number of those who are being seen,” said Terry Edwards, founder and CEO of PerfectServe.
After implementing the program, the hospital was able to reduce the CDU length of stay for patients who were later admitted to inpatient beds by 40 percent and 10 percent for patients not admitted. Currently, more than 100 hospitals in the U.S. are using the program and about 70 are in the process of deploying it.
Edwards thinks that in the future, all hospitals will have some type of program in place to streamline communication. “As we start connecting these information systems with these communications systems, we’re able to make people aware of things that we couldn’t in the past,” he said. “By making them aware of the right things in the right way, they can take action and deliver better care.”
As the payment model shifts from fee-for-service to value-based, solutions that improve patient outcomes and satisfaction are going to become more popular.
“I think the health care systems and hospitals that are recognizing that they need to transform and continue to innovate and grow will all be adopting tools like this,” said Edwards.
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