Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York City was able to reduce waiting times for 50 percent of emergency department patients in need of an inpatient bed by one hour, maximizing resources and improving patient safety.
Mt. Sinai has 1,100 beds and admits more than 59,000 patients annually, resulting in constant bed occupancy of more than 90 percent. To help make the ED admissions process as efficient as possible, the hospital piloted a GE Healthcare program called AutoBed that matches available beds to incoming patients, according to a BBC report.
"In a typical hospital room, if you put a male in bed, you need to put a male in a second bed, and it eventually becomes a game of Tetris," GE Research's Dave Toledano told BBC.
The AutoBed software piloted at Mt. Sinai is able to process up to 80 bed requests, track the occupancy of 1,200 beds and factor in 15 patient requirements, such as nurse proximity, to effectively triage bed requests, according to the report.
"It essentially says, 'Hold off, your instinct is to give this bed to that guy, but there might be a better choice,'" Mt. Sinai President Wayne Keathley told The New York Times.
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