Pioneers in patient flow improvement: Combining people, processes, and technology

Consider these scenarios
• A family member is told to arrive at the hospital at noon because his elderly father is being discharged. Due to delays in obtaining discharge and prescription orders and the need to educate the patient and family member on medication use, the patient leaves the hospital at 4 pm.
• A medical/surgical floor is informed that a patient is waiting in the Admitting area to be placed on the unit. The unit secretary calls in a STAT order for a room to be cleaned. Housekeeping arrives an hour later. The patient waits for three hours in the hallway outside of Admitting, along with several other sick patients, before being sent to the floor.
• In an effort to reduce overcrowding in the Emergency Department, a hospital creates a medical admissions unit where patients can be taken for further clinical assessments and treatment once the decision has been made to admit them to the hospital. Patients routinely are taken to the unit, even when beds are available on the floor to which they ultimately will be admitted. As a result, patients are moved more often than they need to be before they even begin their hospital stay.