Predicting vs. Reacting for Hospital Operational Efficiency

Did you get a chance to tune in last Friday for “Predicting vs. Reacting to the Everyday Capacity Crunch“, the 2nd session of our webinar series entitled: “7 Ways to Master Operational Efficiencies in Your Hospital.” The first session addressed From Silos to Organizational Transparency for Operational Efficiency.

During her 30-minute presentation, TeleTracking’s Maria Romano highlighted the importance of prediction vs. reaction when dealing with the everyday capacity crunch faced by hospitals.

Why is it so important to “predict” rather than “react” in a hospital environment? Romano explained that reacting all day to patient census, nursing staff, registration staff and everyone else in the hospital was exhausting and “quite possibly the most difficult job she’s ever had.”

Furthermore, getting buy-in given a reactive style of management was complicated because it was constant, time-consuming and ultimately detrimental to overall efficiency.

Romano categorized reactive and predictive bed management styles as follows and asked webinar participants what style of bed management they currently employ in their hospital.

Reacting Style	Predicting Style
To change in response to stimulus	To declare or indicate in advance
To act in opposition to a force or influence	Foretell on the basis of: observation, experience or scientific reasoning
To move or trend in the opposite direction

An astounding 67% said that they are more inclined to “react.” What style best describes your hospital?

To move from a reactive style of bed and capacity management to a predictive one, Maria detailed the following six steps:

1. Bed ownership is key! Insist on a centralized process when assigning beds

2. Predict portal of entry admissions by 12:00AM for the current day

3. Know pending and confirmed discharges for the day to optimize capacity

4. Predict your staffed beds—ahead of time!

5. Utilize Transport/EVS Metrics

6. Predict incoming capacity and plan accordingly

Being able to predict capacity and plan accordingly leads to a more centralized, functional hospital enterprise. It also vastly improves hospital operational efficiency!

If you’d like to learn more, we invite you to register below for the next sessions in this series by clicking the links.

Webinar Series: 7 Ways to Master Operational Efficiencies In Your Hospital

Fridays from 11:00 AM to 11:30AM EST
Through April 19th, 2013
Hosted by TeleTracking’s very own Maria Romano, RN, BS Clinical Product Consultant

• Session 3: (Friday, Feb. 22): Managing Organizational LOS
• Session 4: (Friday, Mar. 8): Patient Placement and the Notion Behind Pull vs. Push
• Session 5: (Friday, Mar. 22): The Benefits of a Centralized Patient Transport Department
• Session 6: (Friday, Apr. 5): The Value of Real-Time Dirty Bed Notifications
• Session 7: (Friday, Apr. 19): Disaster Planning for Mass Casualty or Weather Incidents

We will see you on Friday!