Tom Kitchen Jr, MECM, CEM’s Post

Reliable single point of access to senior clinicians often means paramedics, GPs and other healthcare professionals can care for their patients in the community rather than sending them to A&E. This is particularly important as we head into winter. Providing a single point of access to senior clinicians via Consultant Connect: 📱 Increases answer rates: 80% of calls are answered first time and within 30 seconds (average) ✅ Enables multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) to easily collaborate, preventing avoidable conveyances, ED attendances or hospital admissions 📊 Reveals trends and insights into teams' activity: reporting of call data can help job plan activity 💙 Means clinicians speak to the right person, hospital teams only see the patients they need to see, and patients receive the care they need faster

In response to waiting list backlogs, growing demand for beds, and budget constraints, our team worked with Whittington Health Trust leaders and clinicians on an innovative solution. Our goal? | 🎯🏥📉 | To reduce the average length of stay in hospital beds over a 12-week period. What did we do? | 🤝💼🛌 | In partnership with the Trust, we have co-designed and implemented a strategic discharge plan, improving assessment wards, increasing admissions with virtual wards, and improving discharge planning. The results? | 📊✅ | A significant reduction in the average length of stay. This helped meet the soaring demand for beds and free up capacity for a specialist haematology ward.

Enhancing patient care coordination can improve patient outcomes, reduce adverse events, and result in safer hospital discharges and care transitions. Since 2000, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has supported 47 patient safety projects related to enhancing care coordination. In partnership with AFYA INC., CVP has synthesized and summarized AHRQ’s investments in this promising pathway toward safer care, including project findings, outputs, and impacts. Bottom line: improvements in care coordination can make a big difference for patients and providers. Key highlights include: 🏥 The Re-Engineered Discharge (RED) process, a 12-step intervention to improve hospital discharges, reduced preventable hospital readmissions and ER visits by 30%. 🏥 ECHO-CT, a video-conferencing program connecting hospital staff with post-acute care providers, led to fewer readmissions, lower costs, and shorter stays for older patients in skilled nursing facilities. 🏥 Health systems with higher teamwork showed significantly lower rates of ED visit readmission, mortality, and episode costs. Read the published patient safety research summary to learn more about these impactful strategies and other findings: @ bit.ly/45ZTMa0 #PATIENTSAFETY #PATIENTCARE #HEALTHANDSAFETY #CARECOORDINATION #AHRQ #CVP #INNOVATION #CVPHEALTHCARERESARCHANDTECHNOLOGY Reva Stidd, MS, MBA, PMP, Lisa Patton, Richard Martin

The Odyssey Program at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital (RBWH) aims to make a patient's journey from admission to discharge as short and smooth as possible. Grant Davies, head of the Odyssey Program and Director of Patient Flow Services at RBWH says the program is taking a whole hospital approach to patient care, where everyone has a role to play in working towards better meeting patients' needs. 🤗 Using process and cultural reform to improve the experience of patients and staff, the program intendeds to increase efficiency and better patient flow. 🚶♂️🚶♂️🚶♀️ 'We see our 6,500 staff as experts, and we are engaging with them, to find out what their experiences are, where the problems are, and what they think the solutions could be,' Grant says. Odyssey is working with a host of other internal and external RBWH stakeholders, such as the Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS), the virtual ward and Hospital in the Home team, and the discharge transit centre. 'It’s all of our responsibility, not just the clinical team, not just the administrative team, not food services, not protective services, and all the other support services at RBWH, it’s everybody’s responsibility to improve the care for our patients,' Gareth said. ℹ Source: Queensland Health Newsroom (2024)

In a recent American Journal of Emergency Medicine article, results of an emergency department-based program that provided screening of health-related social needs (HRSN) and subsequent navigation support for high-risk patients (high ED utilizers) were discussed. The HRSN assessment and navigation resulted in a 10% reduction in ED utilization in the subsequent 6 months, even with only one third of identified HRSN being successfully resolved. Interesting innovative program that has potential for even more. Is your organization doing HRSN or Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) assessments and following up? What have you seen happen? A descriptive study of screening and navigation on health-related social needs in a safety-net hospital emergency department - ScienceDirect https://okt.to/eJoIa2

Improving continuity of care in general practice is a key policy aim, across the political spectrum, associated with better outcomes for patients. In this long read, we explore the different ways continuity of care can be measured effectively. Read more ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/eJeQ6N-g

🏥 Avoidable attendances...the age old problem 🏥 Since my work in the ambulance service, reducing avoidable attendances/conveyances to ED has been a real interest of mine. However similarly now, like then, there is no continuously collected measure available which monitors the number of patients who arrive at ED who could have appropriately received treatment in a different setting. Nonetheless, it is great to see the wide spread use of the A-tED (alternatives to ED)/ A-tA (Alternatives to Admission) tool: A-tED testing looks at three elements and calculates three scores for each mini scenario as follows:   📑 1. Directory of services score (DoS):  The DoS score is calculated by working with the local DoS lead to look at what is profiled on the DoS against each mini scenario. The score shows if the services are visible on the DoS and  for what proportion of days and hours the service is available when compared with national guidance 🤝 2. Commissioning score:  The commissioning score is determined by whether the service in question is commissioned. If it is, then a calculation is made of the number of days/hours commissioned, compared with  national guidance 🗺 3. Navigation & Access score:  This score is assigned for each mini scenario by the stakeholders attending the session. It is an agreed score through ease of navigation and simplicity of access for service users and system partners   These can be reviewed across Out of hospitals alternatives to ED attendance, in hospital alternatives to ED attendance and alternatives to Hospital admissions   Want to learn more? Check out https://lnkd.in/eG5uAJG3 #urgentcare #EDpressure #healthcare #A-tED #GIRFT #patientcare #ReducingAvoidableConveyance

➡️ This case study highlights how Health Now's targeted staffing solutions can address specific healthcare challenges. By providing qualified weekend echo staff, they helped Worcestershire NHS Trust clear its backlog and improve patient access to essential diagnostics. 📝 Challenge: Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust battled a growing backlog of echocardiogram (echo) exams after COVID-19. Staff shortages added pressure, leaving many patients waiting for this vital heart assessment. 📌 Solution: To tackle the backlog, the Trust partnered with Health Now, a provider of healthcare personnel. Health Now provides qualified staff specifically for weekend echo cover. Results: ✅ Faster Access: The additional weekend support significantly reduced waiting times. In just over 3 months, the backlog was cleared, ensuring more patients received timely echo exams. ✅ Efficient and Reliable: Nicola Smith, Countywide Cardiopulmonary Deputy Manager, praised Health Now for the efficient, reliable, and professional service provided by their staff.

In a recent American Journal of Emergency Medicine article, results of an emergency department-based program that provided screening of health-related social needs (HRSN) and subsequent navigation support for high-risk patients (high ED utilizers) were discussed. The HRSN assessment and navigation resulted in a 10% reduction in ED utilization in the subsequent 6 months, even with only one third of identified HRSN being successfully resolved. Interesting innovative program that has potential for even more. A descriptive study of screening and navigation on health-related social needs in a safety-net hospital emergency department - ScienceDirect https://okt.to/aORlgh

February is American Heart Month. Did you know that Marquis Health Consulting Services has 12 centers that are Heart Failure Certified by the American Heart Association? This includes all 5 centers along the Jersey Shore ❤️ Coral Harbor Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center ❤️ Crest Pointe Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center ❤️ Willow Springs Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center ❤️ The Jewish Home for Rehabilitation & Nursing ❤️ Seacrest Rehabilitation & Healthcare What does it mean to be AHA Certified? Benefits For Patients Access to centers focused on treating heart failure and its co- morbidities. Confidence that the centers can provide the most effective heart failure treatment strategies. Assurance that the center has been vetted and is recognized by the American Heart Association, based on professional evaluation criteria designed by heart failure experts. Benefits For Referring Hospitals Improved readmission rates due to unnecessary readmissions and possible savings. Enhanced continuum of care for the patient through improved care coordination and communication between the Hospital and Facility.  Opportunity to demonstrate quality of care through patient outcomes.  Confidence of certification built on the Association's science and guidelines. Benefits For Certified Facilities Validation of a level of expertise that only the American Heart Association can offer.   Access to a national collaborating network sharing best practices and support.  (Source: www.heart.org) #nextlevel #allinwithheart #hereforyou #AHA #CardiacCare #HeartFailure