One of the cornerstones of hospital efficiency is patient throughput. To be able to bring in more patients, hospitals need to ensure that the average length of stay at their facility isn't unnecessarily long. Maria Romano, RN, a product specialist at TeleTracking in Pittsburgh, says that to improve patient throughput, hospitals need to ensure they are treating and discharging patients in a timely manner.
Using tools that record milestones in the care a patient receives is one way to achieve efficient patient throughput. This allows for transparency and accountability, since the information is available for everybody who handles the patient. This ensures that everyone is on the same page. Standards can be set based on the information recorded and medical providers and staff can be held to those standards. Hospital staff will know if a metric was reached or not, and why. Use of these tools also results in less waste, as the hospital staff will know how many beds they have for new patients, says Ms. Romano.
TeleTracking's pending and confirmed discharge tool is one resource that can be used to improve patient throughput in hospitals. Improvement in this area will benefit a number of departments in a hospital. For example, the case management department, which usually regulates patient discharges, will be able to ensure discharges are taking place on time. They will be able to fix any broken processes. Efficient patient throughputs are also beneficial for the patients themselves, particularly for elderly patients or small children. Knowing when they will be discharged can help the healing process for these groups. It is also easier for them to plan ahead and notify their families about when to pick them up.
Also, Ms. Romano says that even reducing a patient's length of stay by half a day will have a domino effect and reduce the average length of stay in a hospital, leading to efficient use of space and resources.
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Using tools that record milestones in the care a patient receives is one way to achieve efficient patient throughput. This allows for transparency and accountability, since the information is available for everybody who handles the patient. This ensures that everyone is on the same page. Standards can be set based on the information recorded and medical providers and staff can be held to those standards. Hospital staff will know if a metric was reached or not, and why. Use of these tools also results in less waste, as the hospital staff will know how many beds they have for new patients, says Ms. Romano.
TeleTracking's pending and confirmed discharge tool is one resource that can be used to improve patient throughput in hospitals. Improvement in this area will benefit a number of departments in a hospital. For example, the case management department, which usually regulates patient discharges, will be able to ensure discharges are taking place on time. They will be able to fix any broken processes. Efficient patient throughputs are also beneficial for the patients themselves, particularly for elderly patients or small children. Knowing when they will be discharged can help the healing process for these groups. It is also easier for them to plan ahead and notify their families about when to pick them up.
Also, Ms. Romano says that even reducing a patient's length of stay by half a day will have a domino effect and reduce the average length of stay in a hospital, leading to efficient use of space and resources.
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