Improving Patient Flow Through Axiomatic Design of Hospital Emergency Departments

Organised by: Cranfield UniversityIn response to crowding in hospital emergency departments (ED), efforts have been made to increase patient flow through the Fast Track (FT). The use of FT, however, has not always been accompanied by an increase in the overall patient flow, sometimes leaving the FT underutilized. We find that this is mainly caused by the current practice of assigning patients to FT based only on the Emergency Severity Index. One index for two functional requirements results in a coupling between prioritizing of patients and encouraging the fast flow of them. By introducing a new index for patient flow, we could uncouple this design problem and significantly decrease the overall patient waiting time (~50%) compared to that of the existing use of FT.Mori Seiki – The Machine Tool Compan

Improving Patient Flow & Reducing Emergency Department (ED) Crowding

Offers early lessons from RWJF's Urgent Matters Learning Network II, a six-hospital collaborative to assess the implementation of strategies for better patient flow and less crowding, develop standard performance measurements, and promote best practices

Standardized Performance Measurement and Reporting in Emergency Departments (EDs)

Describes the RWJF-funded Urgent Matters Learning Network, a collaborative of six hospitals working to develop strategies to improve patient flow and reduce crowding. Outlines seven standardized performance measures they are piloting and reporting on

Optimizing Emergency Department Throughput Using Best Practices to Improve Patient Flow

Emergency Department (ED) crowding and bottle necks are the reality of hospitals across the country. Patients seeking care and needing inpatient beds via the emergency rooms are facing delays with attaining the right level of care. Orchestrating a patient through an ED admission requires a multidisciplinary effort to provide safe, effective and efficient care. This quality improvement project conducted in a tertiary acute care hospital focused on Centers for Medicare and Medicaid metrics to measure Emergency Department (ED) throughput. This multidisciplinary initiative focused on reducing time stamps for patient arrival to the ED through departure to hospital or home. Outcomes showed a significant decrease in the time frame for patient arrival to being seen by a qualified provider, left without being seen rates, ED diversion, and ancillary department turnaround times. The interventions can be applied at other hospital based emergency departments

An Analysis of the Concept of Patient Flow Management

Aim: To analyze the concept of patient flow management. Background: Patient flow has a significant impact on the provision of patient care. The term “patient flow” is widely used, but the related concept of patient flow management has been poorly defined. The ability to differentiate and clarify the term patient flow management has implications on strategies to improve patient flow. Design: Rodgers evolutionary method of concept analysis. Data Source: Literature published between 2000 and 2021 in the PubMed, CINAHL, and Business Source databases. Review Methods: Inductive analysis of the literature was performed to identify the usage and features of the concept. Results: Patient flow management is defined as the application of holistic perspectives, dynamic data, and complex considerations of multiple priorities to enable timely, efficient, and high‐quality patient care. Patient flow management requires the identification of a patient, care processes, a flow manager, and frontline staff. It has profound consequences on patient, staff, and hospital system outcomes. Conclusions: Literature should more carefully delineate between “patient flow” and patient flow management. Effective patient flow management increases the speed and quality of patient care, improves employee satisfaction, and reduces healthcare costs. Strategies to improve patient flow management should focus on understanding the role and interventions of flow management nurses