Bwh Patient Flow Case Analysis

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Case Analysis of Patient Flow at Brigham and Women's Hospital Table of Contents Executive Summary ------------------------------------------ 3 Organization Profile ------------------------------------------ 4 Critical Issues ------------------------------------------ 4 Bed Management ------------------------------------------ 5 Internal Communication ------------------------------------------ 9 Protocol Noncompliance ------------------------------------------ 13 References & Appendices ------------------------------------------ 16 Executive Summary This report was commissioned to examine the issue of patient flow from the emergency department (ED) to the intensive care unit (ICU) at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). Brigham and Women’s Hospital has seen demand for their services grow in the last few years. This has placed a strain on their resources and their flow of patients from ED to the ICU has suffered. This has resulted in patients having an abnormally long wait time. The team has determined that the critical issues at play include bed management and capacity, noncompliance with current hospital protocols, as well as an inefficient communication system. A combination of the three has resulted in the current predicament faced by BWH. Based on the previous assessment, the team came up with a number of alternatives that should alleviate the present issues. They include setting up a computer reservation system to assist doctors in negotiating for a bed, setting up a review committee to review workarounds taken as well as to assess and revise the protocol, and the installation of an information system to increase communication efficiency between floors and departments. Action steps that introduce a clear path for BWH to proceed on are also presented. The team believes that by following the recommendations and the

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