January

Patient Flow Management Standard Effective Jan. 1

JCAHO's managing patient flow standard LD.3.15 takes effect for hospitals Jan. 1, 2005. Hospitals must be in compliance with the standard as of that date. The standard implores hospital "leaders to develop and implement plans to identify and mitigate impediments to efficient patient flow throughout the hospital." JCAHO leaves responsibility for identifying and establishing procedures and processes to improve patient flow to hospital leadership.

JCAHO.org

Consumers, HSAs Drive Patient Flow Faster

"Consumer-directed healthcare and health savings accounts are going to push hospitals to become more customer focused," said Dave Harris, National Revenue Cycle Partner for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, for this newsletter. "There is a strong correlation between patient access, flow and finance when it comes to customer satisfaction. This includes the financial aspects of health care delivery that normally occur after discharge. If patients do not feel that their account (insurance claims and patient statements) was handled properly they might look to another facility when choosing their next facility for patient care."

A Lesson from the Assembly Line

Time and motion studies revolutionized industrial efficiency years ago. Patient flow time and motion studies in hospitals can return the same benefit. Department-to-department bottlenecks can be reduced or eliminated; patient data can flow smoothly from intake through discharge; patient safety and care improved; beds turned faster; and, the revenue cycle enhanced.

Digital Hospital Should Leverage Existing Technology

The ideal patient flow solution captures, integrates and uses data from existing systems and avoids having users re-enter data that has been captured elsewhere, such as registration or the ED. Patient flow technology should be platform-agnostic, thus co-exist with existing systems and applications. It should be intuitive so users adapt to it quickly.

StatCom.com

What Makes Your Hospital Special?

A survey reported in a McKinsey & Company report notes that "respondents said they would rather drive father, pay more (in the form of higher co-payments), and even switch doctors if it meant faster service." The report notes "It is benefits such as shorter wait times and fast turnarounds that can distinguish one hospital from another."

Hospitals Get Serious about Operations - Paul D. Mango and Louis A. Shapiro, McKinsey Quarterly

Who's Responsible for Patient Flow Success?

Patient flow initiatives require department-by-department buy-in and cooperation. However, success most often hinges on the initiative having the support of a leadership champion responsible for creating and communicating the vision, establishing goals and leading the processes. Champions should be an ED or Clinical department director or other key individuals.

Demystifying Patient Throughput to Optimize Revenue & Patient Satisfaction - Patricia Kloehn, Zimmerman.com

Catch Revenue-Cycle Losses Early

Flawed patient information gathering during registration starts revenue-cycle losses and patient flow problems. Empowering frontline staff with decision authority and implementing processes that ensure more complete and accurate intake information improve both the revenue-cycle and patient flow from registration through discharge.

Revenue Cycle Redesign: Honing the Details - Richard W. Laforge, Healthcare Financial Management - January, 2003

Improve Bed Utilization

Hospitals can gain a 15-20% bed and service capacity improvement through patient throughput redesign. "It is not uncommon for a hospital experiencing 80% occupancy to show a ghost number of 120% occupancy," reports healthcare consultants Zimmerman. "Process enhancement is the key to solving many of the problems created by increased demand for your healthcare services."

Demystifying Patient Throughput to Optimize Revenue & Patient Satisfaction - Patricia Kloehn, Zimmerman.com

Improve Patient Satisfaction

Competition demands faster customer service. Long wait times resulting in left without being seen losses can be reduced where the ED, patient registration and other departments utilize patient workflow processes. Patient flow optimization brings an increased focus on patient care and satisfaction while reducing effort among staff and providers.

Satisfying the Impatient Patient: HealthLeaders Roundtable - April 1, 2001; Hospitals Get Serious about Operations - Paul D. Mango and Louis A. Shapiro, McKinsey Quarterly

Stair-Step to Better Enterprise-Wide Patient Flow

Begin patient flow improvement incrementally. Identify by-department bottlenecks. Start patient flow improvement in the ED or OR. Thus, information technology can be concentrated in one area at a time, allowing staff to observe and buy into new patient flow processes. Expand your patient flow initiative throughout the hospital as improvements result.

Optimizing Patient Flow in the Enterprise - Samuel Mahaffey, M.D., Health Management Technology - August, 2004