Increasing Throughput
Truman Medical Center-Hospital Hill in Kansas City, MO, is an urban non-profit hospital with an ED flow of 62,000 patients. Like many EDs, Truman frequently tells its patients who received sutures to return five to seven days later to have them removed. These patients often had to wait long periods of time for this simple procedure. The facility aimed to improve its turnaround times for these patients by creating more efficiency in their suture removal protocol. The goal was to reduce door to discharge to less than 20 minutes in more than 90 percent of its wound and suture removal...
St. Elizabeth Healthcare-Edgewood in Cincinnati, OH, is a non-profit suburban hospital seeing about 77,000 emergency department (ED) patients per year. The ED recognized a significant barrier to quality and efficiency in the care of admitted patients was driven by suboptimal communication and accountability for patient handover and transfer issues. When the ED called to report on a patient, the floor nurse wasn’t available. When the floor nurse called back, the ED nurse wasn’t available. This form of “telephone tag” occurred daily and was frustrating to all staff...
The Albuquerque Coalition for Healthcare Quality launched a series of radio ads to educate patients about when to use an emergency department (ED) or an urgent care facility. In addition to radio ads, the Alliance is also implementing print ads in local newspapers and posters in public buildings and private employer sites. This campaign aims to reduce non-emergency visits to the ED, resulting in higher quality of care, improved efficiency, and shorter ED wait times. Pat Montoya, director of ACHQ, notes that this public service announcement initiative is part of a bigger strategy at the...
Hospital emergency departments (EDs) provide a critical safety net in every community, yet over the last decade, studies have deemed the country’s EDs to be at a breaking point, weighed down by crowding as patient volumes have steadily increased and capacity has decreased. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from 1996 to 2006 the number of ED visits rose 32 percent, while the number of hospital EDs across the country dropped almost 5 percent – leaving an increasing number of patients concentrated in a smaller number of EDs. Because of an increase in ED patients – and efficiency issues in the ED and elsewhere in the hospital – patient care suffers and value is not maximized. It’s a problem that vexes nearly every hospital administrator in the nation.
Hospitals in Increasing Throughput are working to improve select ED performance measures by 15 percent from baseline by March 2012. These measures include:
- ED arrival to departure – admitted patients;
- ED arrival to departure – discharged patients;
- Admit decision time to ED departure time; and
- Left before being seen.
The AF4Q Hospital Quality Network is a diverse organization which addresses three separate QI initiatives: Reducing Readmission, Increasing Throughput, and Improving Language Services.
To learn more about HQN, download the HQN Brochure.
Aligning Forces for Quality - Hospital Quality Network
To improve quality locally, over 100 forward-thinking hospitals are participating in AF4Q through the AF4Q Hospital Quality Network. Member hospitals engage health care providers at all levels within a hospital to improve the quality and safety of patient care, identify potential disparities and craft plans to ensure equity. The work undertaken by hospitals in AF4Q’s Hospital Quality Network address three separate QI initiatives: Reducing Readmissions, Increasing Throughput and Improving Language Services.
Participating hospitals are a part of a learning network of institutions that develop and exchange quality improvement (QI) tools, strategies and lessons learned. They aim to develop and encourage the spread of effective and replicable QI strategies, models and resources within the hospital, across Aligning Forces communities and the country.
The breadth of the network gives it strength and diversity. The AF4Q Hospital Quality Network includes small, 25-bed critical access hospitals in places like Maine, Wisconsin and Humboldt County as well as large 500+ bed urban teaching hospitals in Memphis, Boston, Albuquerque and Oregon.