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Nov 3, 2021
Podcast

The Impact of Effective Transport on Patient Throughput

11 min

LISTEN TIME | 10:54


Thomas Perry, Senior Product Manager – Throughput Solution Line Leader, shares his insights into the important role that transport plays in overall patient flow. Key takeaways include:

  • Patient throughput is tied to how effectively a patient works their way through the different care touchpoints. Transport helps ensure they get to those touchpoints, as well as preparing them for the next level of care.
  • Consistent, centralized transport processes are linked to improved patient safety.
  • Dedicated patient transporters are an economical solution over having a nurse or patient care technologist move the patient.
  • Data can be analyzed to determine the amount of time it takes to move a patient from one department to another, identify barriers, and implement quality improvement initiatives.

About the Expert

Thomas Perry, Senior Product Manager – Throughput Solution Line Leader, has worked on a wide range of patient flow solutions since joining TeleTracking in 2001, including TransportTracking™, BedTracking®, ServiceTracking™, TeleTracking’s RTLS Solutions; including AssetTracking, TempTracking and incorporation of RTLS capabilities into existing and new TeleTracking solutions. His expertise is focused on expanding capabilities to improve patient access and throughput—resulting in improved patient and caregiver satisfaction.

Transcript

TeleTracking:

Welcome to Patient Flow Podcast. Today, we’re very excited to have Tom Perry, Senior Product Manager for TeleTracking join us. Today’s episode is going to focus on the important role that transport plays in overall patient flow. If you could start off just sharing some information about your background and experience.

Tom Perry:

Yeah, sure. Well, I’ve got a tenure TeleTracking that’s over 20 years long. But before that time, when I was even just in graduate school, I had a very big interest in the intersection of technology with communication and organizational structures. How does technology help or hinder how different parts of an organization work together? So, that was a focus of study. I’m happy to say that I’m able to continue to use in the future in my career going forward. But after that period of time, I worked as a process re-engineering consultant in a variety of different areas, sales, business, media, logistics, even knowledge management before I came to my contract.

TeleTracking:

When we think of a hospital, we often think of different touchpoints across the care continuum, the emergency department, radiology, the operating room, the ICU. A key part of patient throughput ties to how that patient works their way through all of those different touchpoints. Can you explain why effective transport is a critical part of effective overall patient flow?

Tom Perry:

Well, I think the easiest way to think of it is the connective parts between that patient’s journey points. When they get admitted, when they go to their room, when they receive their procedure, going for tests, and then ultimately their departure when they’re discharged. So patient transport plays the role in making sure that those patients get to all of those different places inside of the facility, and then prepares them for their next level too.

TeleTracking:

Some hospitals have specific transporters for specific departments. Some take a centralized approach. Can you talk about what the benefits of that centralized approach are versus going department-by-department?

Tom Perry:

I think the word is consistency. So, you’re able to establish a consistent role of transportation service as well as safety measures. If you have that oversight that is centralized, you can maintain that consistency for every patient that needs to be transported regardless of their acuity or their reason for stay.

TeleTracking:

I imagine too there may be some days where the cardiac unit is busier and other days where orthopedic is busier. I would imagine that also gives you some flexibility to respond to those types of fluctuations.

Tom Perry:

Yes. The ability to have transporters have a focus in a certain area. But once the activity there diminishes, they can also be useful in transporting patients in other parts of the facility as well.

TeleTracking:

Please explain why it makes sense to have dedicated transporters instead of relying on nurses or nursing assistants to move patients across the care continuum?

Tom Perry:

It’s under that umbrella of consistency, number one. Number two, nurses and caregivers that are frontline clinical folks are caring for more than one patient at a time. Even though it sounds like it’s a small thing, moving a patient from one point to the other in a hospital could take upwards of 20 to 25 minutes. Now that’s not to say that there aren’t cases where nurses or higher trained clinical staff need to be involved in moving those patients. But in many cases, those patients can be taken by patient transporters and that leaves the caregivers on leave to care for other patients without having to take care of an extra trip out.

TeleTracking:

I imagine you want to make sure you’re maximizing the expertise of nurses. You’re utilizing their skills in a better way if they’re at the bedside of the people who need them most.

Tom Perry:

Exactly. There’s some cost consideration there too. So having a patient transporter resourcing those patients is a little more economical than having a nurse or even a patient care technologist move that patient, which is more expensive.

TeleTracking:

Please describe the transport process from the initial request to the final touchpoint for the patient.

Tom Perry:

So it all does start with the request. We have a situation where a patient needs to be taken to their room. They may need to be taken for a procedure. The caregivers will enter that request, and it becomes dispatched to an available transporter. That transporter responds. Now that transporter was likely not in the same area that the patient is in. They may down the hall, in another building. But when they respond, they’ll use their mobile device to indicate I’m on the way. That’s very important from a number of standpoints. We use that response to notify the caregivers that are in the area where the patient is waiting that they’re on the way.

We also use that to measure performance. We now know when did they begin heading to where that patient is. So once that transporter arrives to where the patient is, they’ll use their mobile device again to mark themselves in progress. What that does is, like the first touchpoint notifies the receivers that the patient is on the way, also gives the recorder an opportunity to mark any delays if need be.

It also will verify that it is the correct patient that is being moved. Then once they take the patient to their destination and they mark that task as complete. They receive another task, if there’s one, and off they go again. So it’s that repeatability and that consistency from the patient transport side that gives that high quality.

TeleTracking:

We’ve talked about consistency and process. There’s always that commitment to continuously improving. What are some tactics that people can do to improve upon that process for their transporters?

Tom Perry:

Well, a lot of it is around measurement. So all of those touch points that I mentioned before, allow us to understand how long does it take typically to move a patient from one department to another. You can break that down even further to understand where the barriers are.  So, measuring things like timeline task, how long on average it takes in different pay parts, to and from different destinations and departments in the hospital, as well as capturing delays. Any bottlenecks that cause an extra wait for the patient or extra time in the process. If you start to understand what those things are, then you can begin to remove those delay problems.

TeleTracking:

We’re talking about the transporters being responsible for moving patients across the continuum. Can you talk about though the role that they play as caregivers? People are nervous when they’re in the hospital. Can you share the role that they play in patient care?

Tom Perry:

It’s somewhat of a comfort role. You are with this person in a wheelchair. You made the last touch point before that patient goes in for a certain procedure. So, ensuring that there’s some comfort and some familiarity around what is about to happen.

You often as a transporter are one of the last people that will take a patient to their car before they go home, or they’re leaving to go to another facility. So it’s a very personable kind of work that you’re doing, because you’ll be interacting with that patient.

TeleTracking:

Do they have any special training? Are they CPR certified or certified as EMTs?

Tom Perry:

Well, I’ve seen it go across the gamut at many different hospitals in my career. I think the first thing to note is it’s not a desk job. So there’s quite a bit of steps that you’ll get in if you’re tracking your steps. So, very physical, but many, many of the organizations will have their transporters undergo CPR training, or understanding how to monitor a patient’s vital signs during transit because things can happen.

Being able to recognize in the event that the patient needs some additional care while they’re being moved from one point to another. Again, it’s around that consistency. All of the transporters have that same training. You can ensure a higher standard of safety and quality.

TeleTracking:

How would you say patient transport connects to patient safety. You sort of touched on that before, as well as patient satisfaction.

Tom Perry:

A couple things. We’ve all heard those horror stories of patients that have been taken to a procedure area. Instead of having their left leg worked on, it was their right leg. So, transporters actually play a role in that from just an identification standpoint. It’s inevitable that we will have more than one Smith or more than one Jones in the hospital at the same time.

There can be mistakes that are made by the requesters, when they’re asking for those patients, if they’re not following all of those procedures. It’s the transporter that can often verify, is this really the right John Smith? By looking at their name and their date of birth and their visit number, to ensure that the right patient is going for the care that they need.

From a satisfaction standpoint, again I think I mentioned this before. The transporter is often the very last touchpoint that your organization will have as a hospital with that patient before they go home or before they go to a different care facility. We all, I think, can think of many, many occasions where we have received inconsistent service.

Whether it’s going to the movies or going to a restaurant, you may have had a wonderful meal, but if the dessert is not what you expected or in line with consistency, that taints the entire experience. So it’s very important and maybe play a critical role in making sure patients are satisfied.

TeleTracking:

On a related note, can you also share how do transporters help making sure that patients have all the equipment that they need?

Tom Perry:

Good question. Often when you start to have consistency and efficiency, you’re able to do more with the transport staff that you have. So that becomes an opportunity to start to add other tasks for those transporters to do. So, if they are keeping up with patient transports, and there is a period of time perhaps where there aren’t as many happening.

Some of those transporters could be assigned to move equipment throughout the hospital. Those can be clinical pieces of equipment like infusion pumps. But it could be transport related equipment like wheelchairs and stretchers, making sure they stay clean and in areas for when the next wave activity begins.

TeleTracking:

Yes, and I imagine with the additional precautions that health systems have had to do due to COVID. That becomes even more important to make sure that equipment is in the right place, and that it’s going through the appropriate process before it’s used for another patient.

Tom Perry:

Exactly. So, the consistency is the key. If you can maintain a certain level of consistency and repeatability, then you can also focus on the quality and adjust when things like a pandemic happen to throw things into a bit of a tailspin.