Over the next 5 years, with the continued aging of the world population and accelerated clinical technology advances, demand for in-patient bed capacity is projected to rise substantially. Due to this rise in demand, Bed Management will become critically important to manage and insure in-patient throughput. Bed Management has traditionally been a background activity in hospitals that few administrators managed directly – unless there is a problem. Inefficient, or worse, ineffective Bed Management can create long-term systemic problems for patient, nurses, physicians and administrators. If not managed effectively, it directly impacts patient safety, patient and employee (nurse and physicians) satisfaction, and, ultimately the hospital’s top and bottom line.
Some of the inefficiencies and challenges in the Bed Management process include:
- Inter- and Intra-departmental communication
- Disagreement on problem causes and ownership of problem correction
- A lack of integration between systems that increases manual work in bed scheduling and bed preparation
- Patients end up
- Waiting too long for the treatment
- Being treated in less safe settings
- Being diverted to another department or another hospital
- Surgeries are delayed or cancelled
- Care co-ordination issues
- Patient and employees (nurses and physicians) dissatisfaction
- Due to poor resource and facility utilization, negative impact to revenue and bottom line
- Poor visibility/status in the bed management process.
- Delay in patient discharge
- Delay in bed cleaning and uncoordinated housekeeping activity
- Inefficient capacity planning overall and for each department. Balancing demands from the different patient entry or transfer points such as ER, OR, Ortho etc.
AGNITY Healthcare APTUS PatientFlowTM System provides timely communication and co-ordination among:
- Clinical staff
- Patient placement staff
- Nursing unit staff
- Environmental services staf
- Admitting staff
- Patient transportation staff
While reducing:
- Need for alternative patient placement for overflow bed conditions
- Wait time for patients entering the system through the Emergency Department
- Wait time for admitting surgery patients.
- Dietary costs through the elimination of food trays going to empty beds
- Pharmacy costs by eliminating medications going to empty beds
And increasing:
- Effectiveness in providing patient discharge services such as: Home Health transition and follow-up; physical therapy; social services such as: arranging for equipment; oxygen, wheel chairs; and other patient required services.
- Utilization of bed and capacity
- Employee productivity and utilization
Thus providing better care and operational effectiveness with improved customer service
