5/2/2007
TeleTracking Launches Avanti Patient Flow Services Division
TeleTracking Technologies has created a new division to help hospitals achieve sustained patient flow improvement through better process re-design.
Avanti Patient Flow Services is expected to be an important compliment to its market leading patient flow automation technology as pressure mounts regarding overcrowding.
Due to that pressure, hospitals sometimes try a "quick fix" by either changing manual processes or simply installing patient tracking technology.
Avanti Patient Flow Services will specialize in combining technology with "human factor" issues, based on the philosophy that improvement is best sustained if employees take part in redesign, goal-setting and technology selection from the outset. The new division will field a team of specialists who can draw on nearly two decades of industry thought-leadership and best practices in patient flow improvement.
These specialists will analyze the existing situation on-site, help select employees for the re-design team, develop custom blueprints to meet or exceed key metrics, assure those metrics are regularly achieved, and help staff understand and accept the changes.
Lisa Romano, RN, MSN, will serve as Avanti’s Director of Patient Flow Services. She brings nearly 20 years of clinical nursing and hospital administrative experience and most recently was administrator of patient logistics at Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network. Joining her are TeleTracking’s Marty Carlton, RN, Bob Teed, RN, and Mike Wilford.
All have hospital experience a7s problem-solvers who successfully combined process re-design with automation technology, and also have an understanding of the process problems caused by the "siloed mentality" of hospital operations.
"In our business, a successful client is one that achieves sustainable patient flow improvement," said Anthony Sanzo, CEO of TeleTracking Technologies.
"This requires in-depth analysis of current practices and consensus on attainable goals. It also requires effective employee communications to attain ‘buy-in’ for the new process."
Many hospitals want to fix the patient flow process first, according to Sanzo. But technology needs to be integrated from the outset. Determining which steps can be eliminated is impossible without knowing what technology is available to streamline the existing manual processes.
While hospitals are often quick to adopt new clinical technologies, they’re often slower to implement operations-type systems. One of the advantages of an advanced patient flow automation system is its ability to measure user-determined milestones in real time, so performance can be gauged continuously.
"Consistent improvement requires accountability and transparency of information," said Romano. "How can hospitals fix what they can’t see or measure?"
According to Romano, routinely collecting and tracking data allows staff to establish the benchmarks which are essential to improving performance. Involving staff in the process allows them to understand its logic and take ownership. The success which results reinforces their decisions and supports their new behavior.
"Constant improvement is driven by people," Romano says. "In order for this to happen, leaders must create an environment which allows that resource to be tapped."
For more information please visit Avanti - Advancing Patient Flow for Hospitals.