Summary
This leading Florida health system is one of the largest employers in their county and has received an IBM Watson Health Top 100 Hospital recognition as well as a Top 100 Hospital with Magnet Designation. With over 45,000 inpatient admissions, this system was looking for a digital transformation to streamline discharge management and care team coordination.
Problem
As patient volumes grew, the organization struggled to manage capacity and throughput due to inconsistent discharge management and siloed information across nursing units and care teams. Data challenges such as limited access to real-time patient status and discharge barriers, as well as critical patient information being inconsistently documented or even missing, made it difficult for the Patient Logistics Center and Case Management to prioritize patients for discharge in unison.
Additionally, unreliable and interruptive communication methods such as in-person conversations or text messages delayed sharing or acting on critical information. These factors ultimately led to discharges taking longer than required, which exacerbated boarding issues in intake areas.
Solution
Partnering with LeanTaaS, this organization implemented iQueue for Inpatient Flow, enabling them to immediately automate discharge prioritization and patient predictions across the system. They were able to prioritize and drive discharges across the units of greatest need by leveraging accurate bottleneck and barrier predictions. This empowered the clinical coordinator to identify potential discharges and coordinate actions while a discharge expeditor was able to work cross-functionally on the day’s active discharges.
iQueue ensured a consistent and repeatable discharge process by addressing discharge barriers in advance, identifying easily discharged patients without active orders, and maintaining collaboration and communication from shift to shift.
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