Patients at Maryland General Hospital spend, on average, 25 fewer minutes waiting for specialized tests after they are ordered by a physician than they did before a new program was instituted. And those at Greater Baltimore Medical Center spend an hour less time waiting to be admitted after arriving at the emergency department, and up to a half-hour less time getting to a hospital room after the room is free, under the same program.
According to a report from the Maryland Hospital Association, all seven Maryland hospitals that participated in a work-flow efficiency program realized significant improvements in patient care.
“There are so many steps involved in discharging a patient, preparing their room for a new patient and moving the new patient in,” said Catherine Crowley, vice president of the Maryland Hospital Association. “What we found was that there were often as many people involved as there were steps in that process.”
By redefining job descriptions and giving medical technicians more responsibility, participating hospitals were able to alleviate some of the wait times in admitting new patients, Crowley said. “We?re evaluating feedback to determine whether the MHA would offer this program again.”
Each participating hospital identified a patient care-focused problem and used a tool kit developed by the English National Health Service?s Changing Workforce Program. New Ways of Working: Improving Workflow on Patient Care Units was a partnership between the American Hospital Association and the Maryland Hospital Association to assess whether the U.K. model would work in the United States
Hospital and emergency room administrators are working to apply the gains made under this program to other parts of their operations.
“Emergency rooms are backed up and people are waiting a long time in emergency rooms,” said Dr. John Wogan, Emergency Department chair for Greater Baltimore Medical Center.
By easing the process of moving patients out the “back door” into hospital admission, Wogan said, they made it easier to receive patients faster in the front door of the emergency department. So far this month, Greater Baltimore had the lowest total hours on yellow alert ? diverting ambulances to other hospitals because of overcrowding.
Next, they plan to use the same tools to evaluate how they move patients from the surgical operating rooms back to recovery beds, Wogan said.
Participating Hospitals
» Anne Arundel Medical Center, Annapolis
» Doctors Community Hospital, Lanham
» Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Baltimore
» Laurel Regional Hospital, Laurel
» Maryland General Hospital, Baltimore
» Northwest Hospital Center, Baltimore
» Upper Chesapeake Health System, Bel Air
