For years, we have heard about impending nursing shortages. Today, shortages that were regional and seemed manageable have escalated into much more critical problems. Surges of acutely ill patients during upswings in the pandemic, combined with a rebound of backlogged surgeries and delayed care, have stretched nurses to the breaking point. They’ve become burned out and are leaving the bedside. [...]
Perioperative leaders focus on structuring block schedules by surgeon or service line to maximize use of operating rooms. But most approaches pigeonhole organizations into a one-size-fits-all approach for managing blocks that doesn't align with surgeons' needs, departmental priorities, or changing circumstances, leading to financial repercussions and dissatisfied surgeons and staff. Experts in Block Scheduling Management In a May webinar hosted [...]
In the U.S., electronic medical record (EMR) vendors have largely succeeded in digitizing healthcare data. Fueled by the passing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009, specifically the Hi-Tech provisions and associated available stimulus dollars, hospitals rapidly implemented EMRs that could help them reach “meaningful use” and therefore offset the cost of their investment. In 2009, only 12.2% [...]
In many situations, the most successful approach is to begin with the end in mind. That is especially appropriate when it comes to capacity management. Effective admissions and patient throughput rely on proactive discharge planning. A hospital discharge process that begins as soon as the patient is admitted can reduce the length of stay, eliminate unnecessary excess days, increase overall [...]
Hospital capacity planning also requires enabling your frontline staff Technology solutions are often described as part of a three-legged stool, with people and process comprising the other legs. While technology is the enabler, people and processes must also be in sync in order for the technology to have the intended impact on operational improvement. Without all three, the strategy is [...]
Procuring a new hospital management system often takes many months and requires buy-in and approval from different stakeholders during the process, including clinicians, purchasing agents, and C-suite executives. However, procurement is truly just the precursor to actually achieving improvement in your operation. And oftentimes, end users and key stakeholders (e.g., nurses and surgeons) were not involved in the buying process. [...]
Perioperative Management in the (Post-) COVID-19 Era OR time, already a limited resource, has become even more difficult to manage due to unrelenting disruptions such as short staffing, OR shutdowns, and patient testing requirements stemming from ongoing COVID-19 variant waves. These disruptions are putting additional strain - and by default, a spotlight - on operational processes that were already suboptimal. [...]
Survey Confirms Nurse Burnout Crisis The long-projected nursing shortage is now upon us. To gain a better understanding of the impact it’s having on frontline nurses, Hospital IQ recently surveyed over 200 registered nurses working in hospitals. While not completely surprising, the survey results are alarming. Here’s what we learned: Chronic short-staffing is having a negative impact on both patients [...]
Real-Time Data Will be Key to Patient Access and Increasing Volumes If 2020 was the year of the shock of the global COVID pandemic on health systems and hospitals, 2021 was the year of healthcare delivery organizations’ response to the shock. As organizations sought to rebound financially, they faced the challenges of controlling costs while trying to return to pre-2020 [...]
As the 2021 ANCC National Magnet Conference approaches, I’ve been thinking about how technology can support successful nursing practices and contribute to job satisfaction for nurses. This is not much of a surprise given my background as an RN and my current role as Director of Clinical Solutions at Hospital IQ. Knowing that more than 9,000 nurses and nursing executives [...]