From the April 2015 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
And the greater visibility into the status of operating rooms – based on movement of patients, staff and equipment – allows more efficient scheduling of all cases, says Lena Fogle, RN and perioperative consulting director at STERIS. This enables quick turnover in rooms for sequential cases.
Using the software, families can also get automated, up-to-the-minute messages about their loved ones. Additionally, family members can receive these messages via mobile devices, which means they don’t need to be tethered to the waiting room to get updates. Software platforms that combine patient flow automation technology with real time awareness and analytics can be key. For instance, TeleTracking offers its Real Time Capacity Management solutions to automate as many of the physical functions of the hospital as possible and monitor them in real time to increase efficiency in the delivery of care, says
Jason Harber, vice president of product management at TeleTracking Technologies, Inc. “Managing virtually all operational functions online eliminates time lags in those processes that account for most hospital overcrowding problems,” says Harber, including prolonged length of stay, OR underutilization, diversions and delays in providing access to the proper level of care, and needy patients waiting in hallways for beds.
PinnacleHealth System is an example of a health care facility that initially launched its RTLS system for asset tracking, but has since built a fully automated solution for improving OR efficiency and safety. Recently it installed a Sonitor system combined with the STERIS RealView management system to track the movement of patients through the surgical process from the waiting room through to discharge. Because the system is designed to identify whenever something happens outside of the predetermined sequence, staff can receive an alert if anything goes wrong.
“I think our main objective was to give a broad view of where our patients were at any given time,” says Angela R. Whyte, surgical services IS coordinator at PinnacleHealth. At the beginning of a new patient case, the software allows the hospital to alert an orderly, anesthesia technician or other health care provider that a patient is in the operating room and therefore ready for the necessary services. “They come to the room and it eliminates a whole lot of phone calls and overhead paging,” Whyte says. “It’s very quiet and calming back in the OR suites because you’re not having that disruption. It’s amazing how quiet it is because the phone is not ringing.”
