Outstanding Patient Satisfaction Ratings Provide Competitive Advantage
Challenge
To say that the Raleigh-Durham/Research Triangle healthcare market is competitive would be an understatement among understatements. Top quality academic, research and community hospitals are abundant and each institution competes aggressively for their share of the healthcare delivery pie. A chief metric of maintaining a competitive advantage is the level of patient satisfaction, and one of the key ways to keep patients satisfied is to minimize the time a patient must wait for an available hospital bed. With already a 96% + patient satisfaction rating, this 750-bed hospital in the area doesn’t want that number to drop.
Solution
To better understand the status of all patient and bed status throughout the entire hospital, the organization implemented PreAdmitTracking™ with electronic bedboard®. Combined with the BedTracking® solution, they are now able to know the status of each bed (dirty, in progress of being cleaned, available, or occupied), as well as patient status (demographic information, pending or confirmed discharge status, etc.) all at a glance…and in real-time. They employ a 50” plasma screen in their Patient Placement department which provides a complete view of each bed’s status on each floor of the hospital. This information is immediately updated each time a change is logged. This can be accomplished through the hospital’s telephone system using intelligent Interactive Voice Response (iIVR™) or through a computer terminal. Once Environmental Services (EVS) personnel responds to the coded page from BedTracking® to begin cleaning a specific room, they place a brief phone call to the automated bed control system which immediately updates the electronic bedboard®. The status of in progress of being cleaned is reflected letting placement personnel know that a room will be ready shortly. Additionally, if a discharge order has been written by the physician, this information can be entered into PreAdmitTracking™ and patient placement personnel automatically know that this bed will be available within a pre-determined timeframe.
Results
This solution has not only helped keep Patient Satisfaction at an all time high, it has also been responsible for helping to manage nurse staffing issues. By providing a better understanding of which patients will be discharged and the estimated timeframe, the organization has been able to “staff down” during light periods.
Source – “Microscope”, April 2002.
< Back