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Patient Flow E-Newsletter
Volume 3, Issue 1
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
In this Issue:
- Innovations: Pay-for-Performance at the Frontlines: Using Staff Incentives to Achieve Throughput Goals
- Perspectives: Keeping Health Care Lean: Adapting Lean Principles for the Health Care Service Industry
- New Report: Emergency Department Performance Measures: Creating Consistency in a Chaotic Environment
- Recently in the News: Reports on Patient Flow and ED Crowding
- From The Urgent Matters Team: Urgent Matters Welcomes Donna Sickler
- Webinar Resources: 2005 and 2004 Materials are Now Available to Download
Innovations
Pay-for-Performance at the Frontlines: Using Staff Incentives to Achieve Throughput Goals
In the late 1990s, administrators and staff at the Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network (LVHHN) found themselves experiencing inefficient turnover in patient beds. Because information about a bed’s availability and room cleaning were being relayed verbally, it wasn’t being communicated quickly. In fiscal year 2005, however, LVHHN had an 8.4 percent growth in admissions – largely thanks to faster room turnover by implementation of a Patient Logistics command center and capacity management goals for the merit-based performance evaluation program.
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Perspectives
Keeping Health Care Lean: Adapting Lean Principles for the Health Care Service Industry
 
"Lean" is more than just a buzzword to describe a business that runs without fat. Created by Toyota more than 30 years ago, Lean principles help businesses analyze their operational processes in order to maximize speed and quality by reducing waste. Those of us in health care can learn a lesson from companies like Starbucks - deliver a good product quickly and efficiently at a price the patient, or 'customer is willing to pay.
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New Report
Emergency Department Performance Measures: Creating Consistency in a Chaotic Environment In February of this year, nineteen influential members of the emergency medicine community met in Atlanta to discuss and develop performance measures for the emergency department (ED). The purpose of the meeting was to begin the process of standardizing the terminology and implementation of ED performance measures that will serve as markers of operational quality. The resulting Consensus Statement produced by the Atlanta summit is being circulated among the emergency medicine community for comment and discussion.
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Recently in the News
Reports on Patient Flow and ED Crowding
- The American College of Emergency Physicians’ National Report Card on the State of Emergency Medicine
A task force of experts assembled by the American College of Emergency Physicians evaluated the state of the nation’s emergency medical care system. In the first ever National Report Card on the State of Emergency Medicine, an objective panel of emergency medical experts used a range of available data to develop 50 measures for grading each state on a scale of A through F. What they found was a system characterized by overcrowding, declining access to care, soaring liability costs and a poor capacity to deal with public health or terrorist disasters.
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- Center for Studying Health System Change
Pressures on the nation's hospital emergency departments are growing, according to a briefing issued by the Center for Studying Health System Change’s (HSC). Visiting and examining 12 nationally representative communities to track changes in health care markets, HSC researchers found growing pressures complicating the provision of emergency care. This was despite the fact that many hospitals are expanding and renovating. The HSC researchers found that the strain was the result of larger underlying forces throughout the health care system, and that left unaddressed, they threatened to compromise patient access to care and contribute to rising costs of health care.
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- Florida Hospital Association Task Force Report
A task force report by the Florida Hospital Association found that the state is facing a crisis in providing emergency care to its citizens, with hospital emergency departments facing multiple challenges in providing adequate and timely services on a daily, if not hourly, basis. While the report noted the suffering of emergency care across the nation, the challenges faced by Florida were found to be particularly acute because of the medical liability climate, the growing number of uninsured and the increase in demand for emergency services due to a growing and aging population.
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From The Urgent Matters Team
Urgent Matters Welcomes Donna Sickler Urgent Matters welcomes the newest member of its team, Donna Sickler. Ms. Sickler is a paramedic and received her MPH from The George Washington University. Ms. Sickler replaces Khoa Nguyen who has left Urgent Matters to pursue another professional opportunity. Mr. Nguyen was instrumental in developing the Urgent Matters educational activities and we wish him well in his new career.
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Webinar Resources
2005 and 2004 Materials are Now Available to Download Download the materials from all of our 2005 and 2004 webinars. Materials include PowerPoint presentations, audio recordings of the presentations and all additional materials provided by the presenters. The webinar topics include:
- Take Control of the Admissions Process
- Smoothing the Elective Surgical Schedule
- Fixing the Front End: Using ESI Triage v.4 to Optimize Flow
- Service Excellence: Delivering on the ED Service Guarantee
- Reducing Long Wait Times for Mental Health Patients
- Improving Bed Placement of ED Patients
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