3 Tips To Optimize Patient Flows in Emergency Department

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Managing the Emergency Department is quite an achievement: worried patients and relatives, stressed care staff and overcrowded waiting rooms. Each year, in the United States, 136.3 million patients go to the ED. Providing patients with adapted medical care while optimizing resource management is a daily challenge for hospitals. See how to improve patient flows in ED in three tips.

Tip #1 : Categorize Patient Flows

Queues in EDs cannot (and must not) be managed like usual queues : the first in is not necessarily the first out ! The first step of a good patient support lies in triage: patients are labeled by emergency level. To help staff (often Emergency Nurse Practitioners – ENPs), solutions exist. Touch screen kiosks direct patients and provide them with a bar code. The ENP selects the emergency level on the kiosk and gives the patient their ticket.

Tip #2: Direct The Patient and Reassure The Accompanying Person

Once patients are supported, they have to be directed to the right service and be informed about their waiting conditions via video screens that broadcast calls. The patient is reassured that the hospital has them well supported. The accompanying person can also be informed about the patient’s status at any time thanks to a new identification by bar code solution. Indeed, a bar code is added on the reception ticket (provided by the ENP) and the accompanying person can scan it over a reader. An information SMS can also be sent to them.

Tip #3: Improve Staff Management

Optimizing patients’ flows deals also with improving care staff management. By offering them an intuitive, easy to use and efficient tool, inflows are centralized and quickly analyzed. The Orion patient flow management software is part of these tools. It enables to quickly dispatch patients in the queue according to their emergency level and to record their file in the hospital’s software. Care staff work in better conditions.

ESII will present its latest E-solutions for patient flow management at Health-IT Expo. Come visit us from May 19thto 21st, 2015, Paris Porte de Versailles, Pavillon 1, booth E66.

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