The shift from labor-intensive, siloed and error-prone manual processes to digital transformation platforms is enabling hospitals to move faster, improving everything from real-time staffing decisions to patient care.
During a virtual featured session sponsored by Hospital IQ as part of Becker's Hospital Review 11th Annual Meeting, four team members from Brevard County, Fla.-based Health First — a fully integrated delivery network that operates four hospitals — shared their experiences replacing manual processes with an intelligent automation solution:
- Patricia Canitano, Division Director of Patient Throughput
- John Crews, BSN, RN, Director of Case Management
- Debbie Forry, Patient Flow Administrator
- Jessica Maynor, RN, BSN, EMHA, HR Director
Four key takeaways:
1. Manual processes are labor intensive and negatively impact patient care. Like many provider organizations, Health First was dependent on labor-intensive manual processes to coordinate discharges. The clinical care team which includes patient flow administrators, nurses and case managers were spending precious time doing "a lot of writing, texting, phone calls and faxing just to identify the patients to discharge, as well as identify the barriers for discharge," Ms. Canitano said. These inefficient manual processes ultimately increased the length of patient stays beyond what was necessary.
2. Shifting to Hospital IQ improved transparency across the hospital. Manual approaches were also siloed, making it difficult to keep track of all aspects of a patient's care as they moved throughout the hospital. Hospital IQ's AI-enabled operations management platform keeps patient care information, including all discharge planning details, with the patient as they change level of care. This enables the patient flow administrators to stay informed, as well as others who interact with the patient during their stay. "Hospital IQ gives us a better idea of where the patient is at in their stay, and when the actual discharge planning with the insurance companies can start," Mr. Crews said.
3. Staffing can respond to real-time changes faster. The move from a homegrown staffing solution to Hospital IQ has automated staffing processes across the system, allowing central staffing to be more proactive and responsive to real-time changes. "We're not scrambling on the day of and having crises every day because we're more prepared," Ms. Maynor said. Central staffing personnel also have more time to focus on other parts of their jobs. This is because implementation of Hospital IQ has reduced the number of calls that central staffing makes to charge nurses and patient flow administrators to coordinate changes by 65 percent. This also decreased overtime costs, as central staffing employees are getting tasks done within their shift.
4. Hospital IQ's customized approach has been central to adoption. Digital transformation is allowing Health First to reach new levels of performance excellence. Initially the transition was met with hesitation, like any change that impacts daily operations. What won the patient flow administrators, charge nurses, staffing team and other users over was Hospital IQ's ability to enhance the solution to meet users' needs and expectations. "[Staff embraced it] because we were allowed to modify it and make it into something that was useful for us." Ms. Forry said.
To view this session on-demand, click here.