Healthcare Program Improvement
The purpose of the program or project.
The purpose of the quality program is to create a system that will better equip personnel in the workplace to identify barriers to patient flow, create pattern solutions to improve patient flow, and use measurement of data to evaluate the quality improvement plan and to support implementation of the improvement efforts. The patient flow improvement plan will be based on the proven methods of Real Time Demand-Capacity (RTDC) management and planning.
The target population or audience.
The program is designed for the staff, practitioners, and clinicians who work within the environments that directly impact patient care and that require the movement of patients into and out of these contexts.
3.The benefits of the program or project
The patient flow quality improvement plan is based on learning outcomes and practices employed in other fields. A number of key concepts are found across these disciplines and they provide a strategically sound approach to change of practice, yet are adaptable across agency and business practices.
Poor patient flow can have a wide impact on the effectiveness of hospital functioning, and it is clearly linked to the safety of patients within a hospital setting. Contrarily,...
Symptoms of poor work flow include overcrowding in any one area of the hospital -- especially the emergency department, where patients may be left for long periods of time in what has been labeled "boarding practice" -- and the management of patients in an off-service mode or local. Proper patient flow is also important to the ROI of a hospital as it increases the value of the business by ensuring that a higher number of patients are seen by care providers and given appropriate treatment. Also, efficient patient flow is an important aspect of the reputation of a hospital and its employees.
An inadvertent spiral of patient care has been associated with the use of emergency departments to fill in gaps in the provision of service or lack of adequate inpatient space within a care setting. There is a recognized symmetry between an escalating spiral of costs and a deteriorating quality of care when emergency rooms are used as holding places for diverted patients. Hospitals that don't correctly identify solutions to their patient flow problems may expand their emergency departments, spending millions of dollars in an effort to care for increasing numbers of patients. Not only…
