Are Handoffs Your Nemesis?

Are handoffs your nemesis – an ongoing problem:

The ongoing Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare’s Hand-off Communication project found that more than 37% of hand-offs were defective, and 21% of those initiating the hand-off felt a sense of dissatisfaction regarding the quality of the hand-off (JCCTH, 2010). A breakdown in communication was a leading cause of problems during hand-offs. The full report can be read by clicking this link.

Solutions can work in conjunction with your EHR:

Albeit the EHR has helped some with this issue, they have not proven to be the panacea that was expected. They do a good job of documenting patient information, one patient at a time, but are not so effective when dealing with multiple people and workflows. By setting up a fail-safe process for sending and receiving hand-offs, using proven tools, much of the problems that cause hand-off failures could be eliminated.

Healthcare can learn from other industries:

Although the delivery of healthcare is somewhat unique with a complex set of problems and issues involving multiple people, departments and technologies, it is not so exclusive that it cannot learn and borrow from other industries. Other industries introduced Lean, which is a proven methodology that healthcare organizations are beginning to embrace. Why not take that one step further and consider the use of “workflow tools” used in other industries to assist in “hand-offs” between systems, departments and people? Simply put, orchestrating hand-offs with the use of a technology overlay could greatly improve patient safety as well as increasing financial benefit.

To learn more about the clinical workflow solutions Optimium Health offers please contact: vicki@waohi.azurewebsites.net.

Optimium Health and MS2 Form Strategic Alliance

Thursday, May 1st, 2013 – Annapolis, MD; USA

Optimium Health is pleased to announce our strategic partnership with Medical Strategies & Management Systems (MS2), a leader in patient flow logistics whose aim is to improve operational efficiency. Optimium Health’s workflow technology overlay, OPTIMI$ER (TM), will complement MS2’s existing arsenal of tools for client engagements that require a technology solution in order to achieve optimum patient flow efficiency.

Founded in 2004 by clinicians, MS2 is a team of Hospital patient flow logistics experts focused on hospital process redesign, capacity management and operational efficiency. They help hospitals identify and solve the operational constraints that limit institutional patient flow and decrease patient satisfaction with hospital services. MS2’s mission is to help develop operationally efficient and adeptly managed provider health organizations without the need for capacity expansion, staffing increases or technology investments.

MS2 currently serves Hospitals, Healthcare Systems, Physician Groups and Healthcare Consulting Firms that need to identify, design and implement fundamental system-wide changes to address complex patient flow deficiencies. Our clients are able to increase market share, improve staff retention, obtain recognition as a service leader, increase revenue margins, and avoid costly physical capacity expansions. Some of the issues we help solve include:

Emergency Department Problems:

  • ED Overcrowding
  • Lengthy Waiting Times
  • Declining ED Revenues
  • Patients Leaving Unseen
  • Ambulance/EMS Diversions
  • Patient and Staff Dissatisfaction
  • Poor Ancillary Department Interfaces
  • High Emergency Department Boarding Hours

Hospital Operational Issues:

  • High Hospital Readmission Rates
  • Low Number of Predicted Discharges
  • Low Number of Discharges Before Noon
  • High Number of PACU Boarding Hours
  • Declining or Stagnant HCAHPS Scores
  • Lengthy Admissions/Discharge Processes
  • Poor Utilization of OR, PACU, ICU and IP Units
  • Unaddressed State Reportable Core Measures

Learn more at: https://www.ms2group.com.