Description:
A hospital in Southeastern Michigan needed to increase patient throughput in their emergency department, to meet added demand, which had evolved over several years time. Average patient duration in the department was 2.7 hours and average time to admit for inpatients from the department was 2.0 hours.
Solution:
An engineering study revealed that the emergency department was facility constrained in areas such as the nurses stations, as well as general workflow between the urgent care and trauma rooms. In addition, considerable non-value added work was expended by physician and nursing staff in obtaining lab and x-ray reports, which was having a significant impact on patient durations. The proposed solution was to change the floor-plan of the department to facilitate improved workflow and add an emergency department information system, to notify personnel of lab and x-ray report status.
Savings or Revenue Opportunity:
$180,000.00 annual savings in physician and nurse hours
$597,000.00 revenue increase in hospital admissions
Project Duration:
Twelve Weeks