What goes into Emergency Department (ED) Infectious Patient Orchestration?
Perhaps you’ve already read about Operating Room Orchestration and ED Room Orchestration, in which case you may realize that there’s a connection. It has to do with integrating past data with real-time information to deliver predictive data with valuable insights to improve the patient experience.
>> Learn more about the TAGNOS Ecosystem
The Three Elements of ED Infectious Patient Orchestration
ED Infectious Patient Orchestration addresses the major challenge that COVID-19 and other pandemics bring to the ER: how to deal with highly-infectious patients. The solution requires RTLS technology to locate and track patients, staff and equipment, combines it with mobile communications, and overlays data analysis to keep everyone safe.
1. RFID Tagging
RFID tags play an important role:
- For tracking patient locations and times spent in each sequence of the patient workflow
- For monitoring staff to ensure that their safety hasn’t been compromised
- For keeping track of assets and whether they are ‘infected’ or not
Locate Patients
Thanks to an RFID wristband, you can track the location of every patient.
Progress alerts are sent automatically with visibility into where patients are and automatic notifications when wait times exceed established thresholds. This real-time situational insight allows coordination of assets and staff needed at each step in the care process and enables visibility to all departments. It also keeps the patient and the patient’s family in the know despite social distancing and patient isolation.
Monitor Staff
Staff carry RFID badges. This enables you to align staff movements with care delivery steps to more effectively utilize both clinical and ancillary staff. After all, when staff is not in the right place at the right time, your healthcare facility wastes time, procedures are delayed, costs mount and employee satisfaction suffers.
Track Assets
RFID tags allow you to track high-value and/or high-volume medical equipment such as beds, crash carts, wheelchairs, mobile diagnostic equipment, and IV pumps to gain instant visibility on their whereabouts and conditions.
When you’re dealing with a pandemic, the last frustration you want to deal with is an average of only 42% utilization, resulting primarily from lost, misplaced or even hiding/hoarding equipment by well-intentioned staff members.
2. Mobile Communications
Mobile alerts and SMS texts to staff, patients and visitors play an important role in ED Infectious Patient Orchestration. It’s the magic. Notifications can happen in real-time via a device that just about everyone is familiar with and already uses for text messaging.
Thanks to a mobile communication platform, your front line clinicians and the ancillary departments (like transport, housekeeping and biomed/clinical engineering) can anticipate census data and case length, in addition to getting progress alerts of what’s going on and what’s needed in real-time.
As a result, the front line healthcare workers who matter most have the ability to go from reactive decision making to proactive problem solving.
3. EHR Integration
For the best insights, a clinical software solution that helps orchestrate ED workflows must integrate with EHR, as this solution does.
>> See EHR Interoperability For Actionable Healthcare Insights
The Emergency Department Infectious Patient Orchestration Workflow
Here’s the workflow associated with ED Infectious Patient Orchestration.
- Step 1: Patient receives RFID Tag
- Step 2: Document patient’s chief complaint and isolation level to determine Triage Workflow and send related mobile notifications to staff
- Step 3: Automated mobile notifications alert staff of bottlenecks in patient journey
- Step 4: EVS is notified to prep ER for next patient upon patient discharge from ED
- Step 5: EVS notifies via mobile app when room is clean and ready for the next patient
- Step 6: Map view shows color-coded rooms/units to indicate Isolation areas, Levels of Isolation and Occupancy
What Kind of Outcomes Can You Expect from ED Infectious Patient Orchestration?
Here’s what you can expect in terms of outcomes:
Reduced Room Turnover & Cycle Times
- $675 K Annual Cost Savings in ER
Reduces Cycle & Wait times
- 8% Reduction in Cycle Times
Infection Control through Contact Tracing
Map View to easily locate patients, staff and equipment
>> How to Address 3 Common Problems in Healthcare Today. Glenn Raup Explains. Note that Glenn Raup s the Executive Director of Emergency Care Center Behavioral Health and Observation Services at Providence St. Joseph’s Hospital in Orange County.
Ready to Explore ED Infectious Patient Orchestration?
If your Emergency Department is searching for an effective means to prepare for pandemics such as COVID-19, ED Infectious Patient Orchestration may be the exact solution you need.
We welcome the opportunity to help your organization be more effective in the face of this healthcare challenge.
Thanks for reading.
About TAGNOS
TAGNOS is the future of clinical automation software solutions with Artificial Intelligence. TAGNOS is the only platform offering predictive analytics utilizing machine learning and RTLS. This groundbreaking platform leverages historical patient data continuously and adjusts operational intelligence to provide sustainable improvement to both the patient experience and metrics.
TAGNOS provides clinical systems integration, customizable reporting, dashboards, alerts, critical communication with staff and family to improve turnaround times. TAGNOS supports patient flow, workflow orchestration, and asset management.
In the course of 13 months, hospitals see a 12.7% reduction in its overall cycle time – saving an average of 40 minutes from each case and over $1.6M per year – more than 11x the typical investment.