St. Joseph's Hospital (SJH) faced unprecedented service demands in its three primary service sectors and wanted to optimize functional capacity, reduce length-of-stay and cut throughput times for admission and discharge.

THE SOLUTION

Improve patient flow & functional capacity.

Michael Hill, MD and Associates used its Accountable Hospital Operations prototype to dramatically open up the hospital to treating more patients more effectively.

THE RESULTS

The inpatient units increased functional bed capacity by 50-100 beds and, ultimately, inpatient Medicare LOS decreased by 0.6 days nine months after project end.

ED boarding and ambulance diversion were virtually eliminated, and the time from patient arrival to being seen by a physician dropped from 110 minutes to just over 40 minutes.

Patients leaving the ED without treatment decreased by almost 26% - all while ED volume increased by 30,000 visits (16%) annually, with minimal or no extra staff, no additional space, and in a facility built for half of the current volume.