OpCenter improves housewide operations by identifying and eliminating patient flow bottlenecks
ADDISON, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- MEDHOST, provider of leading healthcare throughput and emergency department software, reported that Customers using its OpCenter executive decision-support solution are experiencing significant improvements to throughput and housewide operations. OpCenter delivers unprecedented visibility into inpatient flow and bed management issues, which enables hospital leaders to make well-informed decisions that enhance patient care and satisfaction.
MEDHOST developed OpCenter as a tool to help Customers avoid bottlenecks caused by admitted patients boarding in the ED due to backlogs on the inpatient side. MEDHOST OpCenter provides hospital executives with the operational insight they need in an intuitive format and through real-time mobile alerts so they can monitor and address saturation by department, available beds, pending discharges, admit holds and more.
West Jefferson Medical Center in Marrero, La., deployed OpCenter in December 2009; subsequent patient flow improvements have reduced the number of times when patients left the ED without being seen (LWBS) to 1.2 percent, below the national average. Other improvements include:
- Patient door-to-door time decreased nearly 40 minutes
- Arrival to departure for admitted patients decreased by 60 minutes
- ED care complete to inpatient bed assignment decreased more than 20 minutes
“OpCenter has been instrumental in helping West Jefferson Medical Center reduce LWBS occurrences, while improving patient flow and resource utilization. For instance, with the Bed Ahead feature, our house supervisors are aware of ED patients being admitted well in advance, which makes it possible to predetermine bed availability, ensure quicker bed assignments and reduce admit holds in our ED,” said Andra Theriot, emergency department clinical director at West Jefferson Medical Center. “OpCenter helps our operations run more smoothly, and these improvements result in a better patient experience, which is our ultimate goal.”
Hospital executives are also leveraging OpCenter to identify trends and proactively make operational and staffing changes. Henry Medical Center in Stockbridge, Ga., deployed OpCenter in November 2010, and its executives are making the most of the Web-based system to better manage the bed control process and other throughput variables.
“OpCenter heightens our awareness with real-time information about our patient flow and operations, so we can really pinpoint issues and make changes. For example, we gain visibility into when our Admit Holds are higher than we prefer and can then look at trends for why this happens. The solution may be as easy as adjusting our housekeeping resources to more quickly clean and prepare rooms for new admissions,” said Jeffrey A. Cooper, VP and COO of Henry Medical Center. “OpCenter truly allows us to take a hard look at the things that continually impact patient flow and the overall health of our hospital.”
Many Customers say that the visibility OpCenter provides drives accountability because once people become aware of issues, they jump into action to solve them. For instance, many times inpatient directors will look for ways to free up their departments when capacity runs high, including attending to any outstanding labs for pending discharges.
“OpCenter gives hospital leaders the tools they never really had to easily manage bed availability, staffing levels and the delivery of care. Not only does OpCenter address the high-level issues that impact patient throughput and patient satisfaction, but it also initiates a culture change across the hospital,” said Craig Herrod, president of MEDHOST. “Hospitals are being forced to do more with fewer resources, and to be successful, hospital leaders must make mission-critical decisions as care is delivered. OpCenter makes this and much more possible.”
MEDHOST is exhibiting at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Annual Conference and Exhibition Feb. 21-23 in booth #3831 and will be giving demos of OpCenter. The company also is sponsoring a product pavilion session, where Good Shepherd Medical Center’s VP of Operations, Ron Short, an OpCenter Customer, will present on Tuesday, Feb. 22 from 3:15 to 4 p.m. Titled, “The Ripple Effect of Patient Flow – How to Stay Above Water in an Environment of Increased Demand and Decreased Reimbursements,” the presentation will highlight how hospitals can leverage technology to manage LOS and refine the patient flow process. The pavilion is located in Hall A, booth #1185.
MEDHOST currently serves more than 240 facilities, including large IDNs, rural and suburban hospitals, and several academic facilities across the U.S. MEDHOST easily integrates with leading hospital information systems, including MEDITECH, Cerner, Siemens and McKesson, Eclipsys, CPSI and HMS.
About MEDHOST, Inc.
MEDHOST is dedicated to advancing healthcare IT by developing user-friendly software solutions that improve productivity and throughput, as well as enhance the patient care experience. The MEDHOST product suite has been adopted by leading institutions throughout North America and has proven to dramatically improve house-wide patient flow, financial performance and patient satisfaction. MEDHOST’s OpCenter is an executive decision-support system that provides hospital leaders with real-time information, so they can proactively manage high-level issues that impact throughput, patient satisfaction and resource utilization. MEDHOST EDIS version 4.2 is certified under Drummond Group’s Electronic Health Records ONC-ATCB program and includes real time Patient Tracking, Nurse Charting, Physician Documentation, Order Entry and comprehensive reporting. MEDHOST’s ED Pass kiosk enables self check-in, automatically screens for high-risk conditions and feeds information into the MEDHOST EDIS to expand visibility to the waiting room and improve patient safety. Care Clock, MEDHOST’s latest technology, enables hospitals to utilize information from the EDIS and post current ED wait times on their website so patients can make more informed decisions about where to seek care for non-urgent problems. MEDHOST is headquartered in Addison, Texas. More information is available at www.medhost.com.
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KEYWORDS: United States North America Texas
INDUSTRY KEYWORDS: Technology Data Management Software Practice Management Health Hospitals Managed Care
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