Streamlining patient flow would not only improve patient care and reduce costs, but is also focal to achieving health equity, wrote Eugene Litvak, PhD, Mark Smith, MD, and Harvey FiIneberg, MD, PhD, for The Hill Oct. 7.
"This requires a single management intervention — streamlining patient flow by scheduling admissions, discharges and visits in a way that alleviates manmade peaks in demand," they wrote. "Such steps can be particularly important in safety net institutions, which are historically under-resourced and hit hard by COVID."
Such management of patient flow has worked in several hospitals across the U.S., including Newark (N.J.) Beth Israel Hospital, Boston Medical Center and New Orleans-based St. Thomas Community Health Center. It's been especially helpful during the COVID-19 pandemic, and could save the industry 4 percent to 5 percent annually.