Patient Flow E-Newsletter
Volume 3, Issue 2
Thursday, August 3, 2006

Responses to Your Questions
Shari Welch, MD, elaborates on "Using ED Dashboards and Real-Time Data to Improve Operational Efficiency"

 1. Which measured parameters are passive and which parameters require active input from staff?
The tracking system is used as a communication board. All staff --- from nurses, physicians, EKG techs, to respiratory therapists --- actively interact with the system to communicate the status of a patient. We have 46 computers in the ED, and all beds have terminals and some are on wheels. The data for each individual patient's ED journey is synthesized and aggregated into the dashboard information. This dashboard gives a snapshot as to how ED operations are functioning in real time. The dashboards can be pulled up on any computer and we are currently considering implementing wireless technology.

Outside systems like the lab, registration, the radiology department, have their data passively transferred to our system. For example, the lab cues the ED when lab data is available, as does radiology when the x-rays are done.

2. What was the cost to implement this system?
This computerized throughput dashboard is a homegrown system, so the cost is impossible to pin down. Work began on it thirty years ago! The system is part of a hospital wide information system being developed by Intermountain Healthcare. The cost and expertise to build and update the system is built into Intermountain's IS/IT department.

3. Do you currently have an EDIS and if so which one? If you have an EDIS, why did the tracking system included not meet the needs?
The entire tracking system and EDIS is being built from the ground up with benchmarking and performance improvement needs in mind. Front line practitioners and the ED QI director have been involved from the beginning which is a novel and unique arrangement.

We did look at many outside vendors and products. The problem was that they did not have interfaces for all of the information throughout our system and they could not create them in a timely, cost effective manner. We wanted everything integrated, not a stand alone tracker and then separate islands of information elsewhere.