What is Capacity Management?

The American Hospital Association (AHA) reports that due to hospital closings and consolidations, available hospital beds have been reduced by more than 175,000 since the early 1980’s. This reduction in beds, coupled with population growth, has led to a classic “supply and demand” struggle. This backlog can be easily observed in almost every emergency department (ED) throughout the nation. The AHA states that “62 percent of hospitals reported their EDs were at or over capacity and 33 percent reported having to divert ambulances.” Compounding these physical capacity issues are shortages in clinical personnel and a traditionally manual process of bed management and patient placement in many hospitals today. This leads to delays, lag time and bottlenecks in patient flow. Capacity management gives hospitals knowledge of existing “demand” for available beds, better control of the discharge and transport of a patient, and efficient room preparation, cleaning and placement of a waiting patient.

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What is meant by “workflow automation”?

Automating the processes associated with bed management and patient transport, and all of the associated tasks, throughout the delivery of healthcare services. The exclusive technology involved in this workflow automation improves staff efficiency and productivity, impacts revenue generation by expediting patient placement and improves patient satisfaction by minimizing the wait time for an available bed.

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Will I need to dramatically upgrade my current computer infrastructure?

All of TeleTracking Technologies’ solutions capitalize on an infrastructure already available in hospitals — the telephone system. Employing our intelligent Interactive Voice Response (iIVR™) technology, important information from our solutions can be accessed with a brief phone call to the system, as well as accessed through a standard PC and monitor. Hospitals can also deploy a 62” plasma screen — our electronic bedboard® — to immediately view bed and patient status at a glance.

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How many clients do you have?

TeleTracking Technologies has more than 700 hospital clients using over 1,400 of our workflow automation solutions. Our clients are located throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

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How long has TeleTracking Technologies been in business?

TeleTracking was founded and implemented its first BedTracking® solution in 1991. With a client retention rate exceeding 95 percent, we are now recognized as the industry leader and continue to develop proven “workflow automation” solutions which have been recognized as “best practice” in capacity management.

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Are your solutions Health Level 7 (HL7) compliant?

Yes. All of TeleTracking's patient flow solutions have been successfully interfaced to the majority of hospital information systems (HIS) admission-discharge-transfer (ADT) systems for ease in communicating required demographic patient data.

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Do you have a User’s Group?

Yes. We have a very active User Group Community with over 300 members. Our members share “best practices,” suggest enhancements and are a continual source for helping us test and develop new solutions. If you are a current client and wish to join, please call 1-800-927-0294 for more information.

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How can TeleTracking help us address the JCAHO standard on managing patient flow?

In 2005, The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) directed hospital leadership to implement plans for improving patient flow to prevent overcrowding, which reduces patient safety and quality of care. The standard called for relevant measurements to monitor process improvement.

TeleTracking's suite of Capacity Management Solutions™ builds measurement and accountability into the automated patient flow process as it expedites patient transport, bed turnover and patient placement. Hospital leadership can easily measure, monitor, and report on all processes as they identify and avert potential backlogs in the Emergency Department (ED), Post Anesthesia Care Units (PACU) and other patient care and treatment areas.

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What about HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)?

Our solutions provide users with the ability to meet the HIPAA mandated guidelines. TeleTracking Technologies is, however, not liable for clients who choose to utilize our solutions in a manner not consistent with the prescribed guidelines.

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