Talk of “meaningful use” is everywhere these days – it has become, without a doubt, the phrase-du-jour of the healthcare industry in recent months.
Most hospitals are relatively good. They are ‘patient centered’ and managed by competent healthcare professionals. However, now and again, some hospitals set-aside traditional ways of running their business, look beyond thegood level they have achieved, and take the steps to become great.
One element of our ROI analysis focused on unnecessary internal transfers (unit to unit) of patients . . . Many of these unnecessary transfers were due to not having the “real time” knowledge of bed availability . . .
When asked how he became the world's greatest hockey player, Wayne Gretzky, said he anticipated where the play would be, not where it was.
“Cold beds,“ “hidden beds,” “bed hiding”—whatever terminology you are familiar with, it points to the same problem. In this day and age, with the availability of patient throughput systems, why is this phenomenon allowed to be the mottus operandi for so many hospitals?
