Posted November 8, 2006
Patient Safety and Quality Healthcare: Business News
GE Healthcare Performance Solutions Helping Georgia Hospital Streamline Patient Flow, Boost Revenue and Enhance Patient Satisfaction
Pilot program to bring major efficiency enhancements to Medical Center of Central GeorgiaÝthrough RFID tracking and unique patient care visibility system called Awarix
Waukesha, WI, Oct., 27, 2006 — GE Healthcare will help The Medical Center of Central Georgia (MCCG) improve timely patient care and patient throughput by combining Six Sigma-based process improvements with the latest RFID patient location and patient care visibility system.
The new process will go live in January 2007 at MCCG, a 603-bed acute care hospital in Macon, Ga. The goal is to ensure timely and efficient care by making sure that rooms are ready for patients being admitted or for patients being transferred, such as from the emergency department to the ICU, or from the PACU to a medical floor.
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GE is collaborating on the MCCG project with Awarix, Inc., of Birmingham, Ala., a provider of patient care visibility systems that let clinicians see what is happening with patients and check the status of patient rooms simply by looking at large-screen displays. GE is also deploying its IntelliMotion RFID system to track patients throughout the enterprise.
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Together, GE and MCCG will monitor progress to measure expected benefits such as creation of additional capacity, reduced length of stay, increased revenue and increased patient and staff satisfaction.Ý
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"Cost-effective care depends on moving patients smoothly through the treatment process," says Bill Burke, a manager of clinical practice with the Performance Solutions group of GE Healthcare. "If rooms are not ready when it is time for patients to be transferred or admitted, that causes backups elsewhere in the hospital.
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"For example, if patients can't be transferred after emergency care, then other patients arriving at the emergency room face long wait times and may leave without being seen by a doctor. Similarly, if a bed is not ready for a patient on the way by ambulance, then that patient has to be diverted to another hospital. All this is terribly inconvenient for patients, and it also means a major loss of revenue for the hospital. Our goal is to improve patient care, increase staff satisfaction and enhancement the hospital's overall ability to serve the community."
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As the first step in the MCCG project, the GE Performance Solutions group used Six Sigma and other proven methods to analyze patient flow and to devise a system to help ensure rooms are available when needed. The improvements include scheduling patient discharges regularly throughout the day and setting time expectations for cleaning and preparing rooms after the patients leave.
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The net effect is to "pull" patients through the system by making rooms available in a timely manner and letting the department and admitting staffs know of the availability.
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The Awarix patient care visibility technology, when implemented, will help make staff accountable for following the processes. A large screen near the nurse station on each floor shows a floor plan on which patient rooms appear in different colors according to their status — occupied, empty but in need of cleaning, ready for the next patient. Any staff member then can see if, for example, a room has been sitting empty for an excessive time without being cleaned, or if a patient discharge is behind schedule.
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The system also is used to provide location information throughout a patient's treatment. A radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag travels with each patient's chart, enabling staff to see on the screen where patients are in the system and how long they have been there. To ensure privacy, no names or other patient-specific information appears on the main screen. However, caregivers can use personal computers to access the visibility system and review patient data.
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The visibility system is networked across the hospital so that admitting and departments that need to transfer patients can see when rooms become available. The system also will generate reports that MCCG can use to measure progress against specific improvement goals.
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"As you get busier, you have to become more efficient," says Barbara Stickel, senior vice president and chief nursing officer with MCCG. "The GE Healthcare team has been extremely valuable in helping us create leaner, more streamlined processes.
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"The patient care visibility system will provide instantaneous information that will enable our staff to be much more responsive. It will also help us measure the results of process changes we've put in place. We're very excited about this program and what it will mean to our patients, physicians and staff."
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