Improving handoff efficiency for admitted patients: A multidisciplinary, lean-based approach

• Published in: The American journal of emergency medicine Vol. 37; no. 6; pp. 1202 - 1203
• Main Authors: White, Benjamin A., Bravard, Marjory A., Kobayashi, Kimiyoshi J., Ziperstein, Joshua C., Strauss, Joan L., Hughes, Maryfran, Raja, Ali S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.06.2019; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Academic Medical Centers; Controlled Before-After Studies; Efficiency; Electric communication systems; Electronic medical records; Emergency department performance; Emergency medical care; Emergency medicine; Emergency Service, Hospital - organization & administration; Handoff; Humans; Inpatient medicine; Interdisciplinary Communication; Medicine; Nursing; Optimization; Patient Handoff - standards; Patient Transfer - trends; Process improvement; Quality Improvement - organization & administration; Retrospective Studies; Support systems; Systems engineering; Theory of constraints; United States; United States; Emergency department performance; Inpatient medicine; Handoff; Emergency medicine; Process improvement
• ISSN: 0735-6757; 1532-8171
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ajem.2018.11.003

Systems engineering methodologies have demonstrated success in other areas of ED process flow [8-10]. [...]we hypothesized that a multidisciplinary, Lean-based effort involving different stakeholder groups could achieve improved handoff process efficiency and reduced turnaround times. [...]as a single-center study, our findings may not generalize to hospitals with different handoff processes or underlying technological support systems (e.g. electronic medical records, telecommunication systems, etc.). [...]our pilot did not estimate the cost savings associated with improved handoff efficiency and capacity utilization, but in a capacity-constrained system such as ours, a cumulative gain of ~10 bed hours daily is of significant value to the hospital and the ED.