Optimizing Patient Workflow

In hospitals and clinics, optimizing patient workflows will allow you and your staff to supply the highest and best level of care to patients.

By addressing the way that clinical workflows are tackled,bottlenecks and productivity drains that impact patient flow can be reduced and medical staff can spend more interacting with patients on a one-to-one basis.

Optimizing Patient Workflows in Healthcare Cuts Waste

There can be a lot of waste in an organization when clinical workflows are not being optimized. As physicians and nurses are well aware, all of their time is precious. Every second wasted due to inefficient workflows and communication problems could be better used to provide care to patients.

Healthcare providers that engage in the optimization of their clinical workflows can enhance ROI by cutting waste and using resources more effectively. While this may sound daunting, it should be remembered that minor amendments to clinical workflows can see major improvements and can clear bottlenecks that hamper patient workflow. Organizations that have optimized their clinical workflows can achieve spectacular results and the improvements in efficiency can significantly cut the cost of healthcare provision.

Communication and Collaboration Platforms Enhance Clinical Workflows in Healthcare

HIPAA-compliant text messaging services have helped to improve communication in hospitals and accelerate clinical workflows. The platforms can be utilized by all members of the care team to communicate with each other efficiently. Instead of having to depend on landlines and pagers, messages can be sent almost instantly for speedy consults, crucial information can quickly be obtained at patients’ bedsides, and swifter and more effective communication can remove the common bottlenecks in hospitals that impede patient flow.

Healthcare communication and collaboration services not only permit information to be shared easily between members of the care team, they also integrate seamlessly with EHRs and other third-party systems and help to close gaps in EHR functionality. Alerts can be generated and immediately sent to physicians when test results are available rather than having to continually login to the EHR to find the data. These solutions also allow video and audio calls to be made, so there is no need to switch platforms for more detailed consultations.

By linking the communication systems with scheduling, communication can be accelerated as it is always easy to find the current shift owner. Any changes to scheduling will be automatically reflected in the communication system. That means the proper person such as the on-call cardiologist can easily be contacted without having to refer to a whiteboard, printout, or spreadsheet.

Hospitals that have implemented these platforms and optimized clinical communications report measurable enhancements in patient transfer times, bed allocation, patient throughput, patient outcomes, and patient satisfaction scores.

Speed Up Patient Workflow

From admission to discharge, the patient journey through a care facility will be slowed at various points. When patient workflow is affected, hospital-based treatment will take longer than necessary, which means bed utilization will be far from optimal. These delays are annoying for staff and patients alike and can negatively affect clinical outcomes as well as hospital revenue.

Even when workflows are addressed there can be rate-limiting steps in the patient treatment process that cause delays. Health clinics must discover where queues are forming and take steps to address these problems. Effective clinical workflow management allows these bottlenecks to be addressed without having to increase staffing levels. Think about reallocating certain tasks to other members of the care team in bottleneck areas to ease the burden on healthcare workers.

Inefficient processes slow patient throughput and devour resources. Improvements to patient workflow can be completed through automation, such as having patients use automated check-in desks. This cuts the burden on administration staff and improves the patient experience. Coupled with a modern, efficient communication system, it is possible to streamline clinical workflows, achieve cost savings, improve the work environment, and provide a higher standard of care to patients.