IMPROVING PATIENT FLOW BY UTILIZING A HOSPITAL TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT FOR DISCHARGES
Using a transportation department for transporting patients for discharge is the industry standard. At a large urban hospital, inconsistent use of this department has resulted in frontline caregivers (RNs) having to pick up this function, resulting in potentially unsafe staffing levels on the floor.
The goal of this quality improvement project was to improve the percent of discharges with the transport department from ≤10% to 70% by the end is fiscal year 2018 in an academic tertiary medical center.
Baseline metrics demonstrated the current state and a root cause of analysis were initiated. As a result of this analysis, it was established that staff did not understand the best practice for transporting patients for discharge.
A number of KPIs were developed for the utilization of the department for patient discharge. Post Kaizen pilot implementation, teletracking metrics demonstrated improvements in utilization.
Next step is to rollout to all units and monthly reinforcement with continuous educational/data support from transport, access/flow and operational excellence
