Patient Flow Enewsletter
Volume 1, Issue 7
Thursday, September 2, 2004
In this Issue
:- Upcoming Webinar: Improving Patient Flow and Reducing ED Crowding: Findings from 10 Hospitals
- New Report: Bursting at the Seams: Improving Patient Flow to Help America's Hospital
- Perspectives: Measurement and Accountability: Medical Staff Is Key to Relieving Hospital Capacity Problems
- Best Practices: Centralized Order Entry Initiative Improves Emergency Department Patient Throughput
- Site Interview: Implementing EMTALA Regulations and Its Impact on ED Crowding
Upcoming Webinar
Improving Patient Flow and Reducing ED Crowding: Findings from 10 Hospitals
The next webinar will be held on September 23, 2004 from 2:00pm - 3:30pm Eastern Time. Staff from Inova Health System (Fairfax, VA) and Grady Health System (Atlanta, GA) will present case studies of interventions they developed to address ED boarders and hospital throughput.
Attendance requires only a telephone and a computer with an internet connection. The registration fee is $200 per phone line. One phone line allows unlimited individuals in your organization to participate. Because of high demand and limited space, registration will be accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis.
The first two webinars held in July of 2004 were very successful. Each webinar had over 75 organizations participate. The audio recording and presentation materials are now available for download. These two webinars were supported by funding from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
New Report
White Paper. Bursting at the Seams: Improving Patient Flow to Help America's Hospitals
Urgent Matters has just released a report discussing the valuable lessons learned from a major initiative of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. A collection of 10 American hospitals worked extensively over a one-year time period to improve hospital patient flow and reduce ED crowding. This report outlines critical success factors, important implementation tools, and selected case studies of successful strategies that produced significant results.
Perspectives
Measurement and Accountability: Medical Staff Is Key to Relieving Hospital Capacity Problems
As hospital occupancies continue to increase, hospital senior leadership is constantly looking for ways to balance incoming patient volume with outgoing discharged patients. Within the next five to 10 years, every hospital will face this patient flow imbalance and will have to implement new systems to correct it. Michael Hill, MD, FACEP, president and CEO of EMPATH, shares his perspective on hospital capacity problems and talks about using evaluation, measurement and accountability techniques as possible solutions.
Best Practices
Centralized Order Entry Initiative Improves Emergency Department Patient Throughput
When Grady Health System in Atlanta - one of the Southeast's largest public health systems - was awarded an Urgent Matters grant, the team set a goal for reducing throughput by 25 percent. However, in an emergency department spanning 50,000 square feet and serving more than 100,000 patients each year, this was no small task. Leon L. Haley, Jr., MD, MHSA, deputy senior vice president, Medical Affairs, chief of emergency medicine and vice chairman, Clinical Affairs, Grady Health System, helped lead implementation of a new, centralized order entry system at Grady and shares his experience with Urgent Matters.
Site Interview
Implementing EMTALA Regulations and Its Impact on ED Crowding
The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act - known simply to all as EMTALA, prevents hospitals from rejecting patients, refusing to treat them, or transferring them to another facility just because they may be unable to pay or are covered by Medicare or Medicaid. EMTALA has by all accounts transformed the landscape of emergency medicine in the nearly 20 years since its inception, leaving some to advocate it and others to challenge it. Urgent Matters asked Thomas R. Barker, acting deputy general counsel for HHS and a key player in shaping the rules for the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, to talk about the state of EMTALA today and address some of the issues surrounding implementation.
