Patient Flow Management Solutions are Helping Hospitals to Provide Efficient Treatment to Greater number of Patients

Healthcare organizations require effective management of inpatient and outpatient departments. It is essential to efficiently manage this flow, in order to ensure smooth functioning of the organization. Patient flow management solutions are one such application that enables hospitals and healthcare organizations to effectively improve the patient flow, quality of care, resource optimization & utilization, and also reduce operational cost. In hospitals, it has become extremely crucial to avoid overcrowding in emergency departments also inefficient scheduling in surgical departments.

Inadequate management of patient flow can result in adverse health outcomes, which includes increased mortality rates and readmissions. As a matter of fact, the issue of overcrowding remains prevalent even if hospitals are expanding their facilities or hiring additional staff to keep up with increasing patient flow. If there is poor orchestration of patient admissions, discharges, and transfers, it could lead to multiple issues. Generally, the issue with patient flow arises in the emergency department (ED). The overcrowding in the emergency department can lead to longer queues in admission, delayed discharges, ambulance diversions to other hospitals, and patients leaving without being seen.

Patient flow management solutions offer certain strategies to handle and improve patient flow. One of the first things that need to be done is to establish an emergency department fast-track process, which will be integrated with tests, triage, and treatment protocols. This will streamline patient handoffs. There should be a selective surgical schedule to help relieve strain on post-operative departments. Another step that can be taken is to improve the rate of morning discharges of patients, which gives more time for patients to fill prescriptions and opens up beds for incoming patients. Various countries across the globe including Germany, Mexico, and Singapore have witnessed high adoption of patient flow management solutions in multiple hospitals. Singapore General Hospital (SGH) has automated its patient flow system for bed management, bed turnover, and patient flow processes.