Success Stories

Mt. Nittany Medical Center Improves Efficiency and Optimizes PAT Workflow via Electronic Case Scheduling

13K Cases processed electronically through iQueue within the first 8 months post-launch

100% of planned procedures electronically processed via iQueue

Summary

Mount Nittany Medical Center is a 260-bed acute care facility offering medical, surgical, diagnostic, and community services. Located in State College, Pennsylvania, Mount Nittany Medical Center is part of the Mount Nittany Health System and serves the community throughout central Pennsylvania. The facility has hundreds of physicians and employs 2,400 professional and support staff.

Considered to be one of the best places to work in the region, Mount Nittany Medical Center is dedicated to improving efficiency for the benefit of its many physicians and staff, as well as to providing optimal care for its large community of patients.

Profile

Part of Mount Nittany Health in Pennsylvania

260-bed acute care facility

2,400 professionals and support staff

Hundreds of employed and non-employed physicians

Problem

One of Mount Nittany Medical Center’s goals in implementing iQueue for Operating Rooms was to become completely paperless. iQueue’s Scheduling feature offered this as a built-in benefit directly out of the box. However, the Preadmission Testing Department (PAT) relied on a constant stream of paper faxes to kick off their workflow downstream of OR Scheduling for over 30 years. In anticipation of upcoming construction projects, administration moved towards a paperless PAT environment as quickly as possible in order to repurpose the existing footprint. The department’s substantial space housed employees and significant amounts of paper filing systems in order to accommodate each patient encounter within the department. The goal was to reduce the department’s physical footprint by introducing paperless PAT, move a majority of staff to off-site remote work, and then repurpose the prime real estate space located immediately adjacent to the lobby of the hospital.

Solution

After reviewing the existing workflow for the PAT department, the LeanTaaS team recommended granting PAT staff access to Scheduling. This allowed the PAT department to receive notifications for each case scheduled via OR Scheduling, access all relevant case details associated with each patient via Scheduling, and initiate a completely paperless system. In addition, PAT now receives notifications when case details or additional comments are added to a specific case via iQueue and PAT stays up to date with recent scheduling activity in tandem with OR Scheduling. By implementing iQueue for Operating Rooms, the PAT department’s scheduling went to 100% cases processed electronically on launch day and the department moved some PAT functions to an off-site location freeing up key real estate next to the hospital’s front door for shared and more convenient outpatient lab and PAT services.