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Avoiding avoidable days and bed crunches: A Bismarck hospital slices wait times in half

Case Management Weekly, May 2, 2007

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One of Detroit's largest health systems-Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oaks, MI-recently shaved ED wait times from 8 hours to 2.2 hours by implementing daily briefings and other changes, according to an April 17 article in The Bismarck Tribune.

In January, Beaumont Hospital began a daily briefing meeting for 50 to 60 of the hospital's top personnel, including administrators, physicians, and nurses, to communicate each day's bed needs and to discuss potential care delays.

Other changes implemented by Beaumont to improve services include:

• A process called "bed huddles," which quickly communicates potential discharges to key hospital staffers, from housekeepers to transporters who ferry patients out of the hospital.
• An Express Admissions Unit, which allows physicians to bypass the overcrowded ED to arrange admissions for their patients by using hospitalists to oversee care of patients admitted by other doctors.
• A new position, director of capacity management, held by a veteran nurse who troubleshoots potential obstacles by calling, e-mailing, and text-messaging Bed Management group members to resolve issues that delay discharge of patients.
• A new job classification, comfort care coordinators, who identify unhappy patients and resolve their issues by offering such services as expediting tests to bringing patients food.

With these changes in place, Beaumont was able to cut wait times for inpatient beds in the ED from 8 hours two years ago to 5.5 hours last year to 2.2 hours in February, said Dr. Jedd Roe, chairman of emergency medicine, in the Tribune.

Source: The Bismarck Tribune

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