Presenters & Topics

• 

  Eugene Litvak, PhD

  CEO Institute for Healthcare Optimization;
  IOM and AHA committee member; JCAHO patient flow author and seminar leader

  Managing Variability in Hospital Patient Flow: A Necessary Foundation for Quality Improvement and Cost Reduction

  Bio:

  Eugene Litvak, PhD is President and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Optimization and an Adjunct Professor of Operations Management in the Department of Health Policy & Management at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH).  Professor Litvak is an author of more than 60 publications in the areas of  operations management in health care delivery organizations, cost-effective medical decision-making and operations research.

  Since 1995 he leads the development and practical application of innovative approaches in managing patient flow variability (introduced by him and Dr. Long) for cost reduction and quality improvement in health care delivery systems. Application of these approaches has resulted in significant quality improvements and multimillion dollar improvements in the margins for every hospital that has applied them. Professor Litvak was a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee The Future of Emergency Care in the United States Health System. Currently he is a member of the Institute of Medicine committee: The Learning Health Care System in America. He was a member of the “National Advisory Committee to the American Hospital Association for Improving Quality, Patient Safety and Performance”.

  Dr. Litvak was the editor of The Joint Commission’s most recent Patient Flow manual, and the leader of the organization’s first patient flow seminars.

  Topic:

  Managing Variability in Hospital Patient Flow: A Necessary Foundation for Quality Improvement and Cost Reduction

  In an era of Health Reform, improving quality and safety, and decreasing healthcare cost have become even more important goals than before. Management of patient flow is at the heart of our ability to achieve these goals. While on one hand we are faced with overcrowded facilities, on the other hand, the industry’s financial conditions do not allow us to add resources liberally.

  Managing variability in patient flow has been shown to drive unprecedented improvements in patient throughput (with existing resources), working conditions, and quality and safety of care. This methodology, developed by the faculty of Institute for Health Care Optimization (IHO), has been endorsed by the Institute of Medicine and American Hospital Association. IHO’s approach was the central theme of Joint Commission Resources’ second edition of Managing Patient Flow in Hospitals: Strategies and Solutions, published in November 2009.

  In this presentation Variability Methodology will be introduced along with the benefits of applying the principles and practices of this methodology to the healthcare delivery system.  It will be demonstrated that the root cause of hospital Emergency Department overcrowding, readmissions, nurses overloading, diminished quality of care and inflated cost frequently is the same.  The linkage between the cost/quality of healthcare and how that care is delivered will be discussed.  This presentation will also provide a practical course of action to add uninsured to hospital demand without building more beds and hiring more nurses, while significantly improving quality of care and patient safety.

  Several case studies will be presented.

  Presentation Learning Objectives:

  • Develop an understanding of managing hospital patient flow;
  • Understand how hospital patient flow, cost of care, and patient safety are linked;
  • Learn how to simultaneously reduce readmissions, ED overcrowding, hospital acquired infections, patient mortality, nursing stress, and improve hospital margins.

• 

  Joelle LoFaso, BSN, RN

  Director of Admissions, Transfer Center, and Hospital Throughput
  Cleveland Clinic

  Care Coordination and Technology Streamline Hospital Operations, Enhancing Patient Experience and Care

  Bio:

  Joelle LoFaso is the Director of the Admission and Transfer Center and Hospital Throughput at Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, OH. Joelle began her career at Cleveland Clinic as a nursing assistant and then worked as a staff RN and manager of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit for over a decade. She has experience in nursing recruitment through her role as a recruiter and Director of Nurse Recruitment. Since joining Medical Operations in 2011, Joelle has worked to continue to improve the transfer process for the 8 hospitals in the Cleveland Clinic system through program growth and process improvement projects such as Bed Resource Management.

  Topic:

  Care Coordination and Technology Streamline Hospital Operations, Enhancing Patient Experience and Care

  The improvement of care coordination and integration within healthcare systems is paramount to success of healthcare delivery models today. The integration of a centralized Admission and Transfer Center supporting an eight hospital system in Northeast Ohio has assisted Cleveland Clinic in achieving that success. This team coordinates direct admission reservations as well as more than 1,700 hospital transfers per month into our health system.

  The 24/7 operation within the Admission and Transfer Center is staffed by Hospital Transfer Specialists who utilize a centralized phone system and transfer database to communicate and record key information.  The technology has improved the timeframes between intake call, bed assignment, and physical transfer of the patient.  Specific workflows and metrics have been developed to support physician-to-physician communication, faster acceptance of patients, and improved utilization of bed resources.

  The Admission and Transfer Center works collaboratively with many Cleveland Clinic teams to support patient care. Continued collaboration and process improvement will be critical for all hospitals to remain successful.  Future improvements with bed management and visibility, forecasting, and workforce planning provide opportunity for growth and further development within this team.  The experiences of this centralized Admission and Transfer Center demonstrate that effective collaboration between facilities and internal departments promotes process efficiency and enhances the patient experience and clinical care.

• 

  Kirk B. Jensen, MD, MBA, FACEP

  Patient Flow Faculty, IHI
  

  Hardwiring Flow: Medical Leadership, Patient Flow, Customer Service, and Patient Safety

  Bio:

  Dr. Kirk B. Jensen has spent over 20 years in Emergency Medicine management and clinical care.  Board-certified in Emergency Medicine, he has been medical director for several emergency departments and is Chief Medical Officer for BestPractices, Inc.

  Dr. Jensen is a faculty member for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) focusing on quality improvement, patient satisfaction, and patient flow. He chaired two IHI communities: “Improving Flow Through the Acute Care Setting” and “Operational and Clinical Improvement in the Emergency Department”. Currently he is a leader of the innovative IHI seminars Cracking the Code to Hospital-wide Patient Flow and Perfecting Emergency Department Operations.

  Dr. Jensen is co-author of two books, Leadership for Smooth Patient Flow (2007 ACHE Hamilton Award winner) and Hardwiring Flow. In addition, Dr. Jensen served on the expert panel and site examination team of Urgent Matters, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative focusing on helping hospitals eliminate ED crowding and congestion as well as preserving the health care safety net.

  Topic:

  Hardwiring Flow: Medical Leadership, Patient Flow, Customer Service, and Patient Safety

  This session is a high-level overview of hospital operations covering specifics of the four pillars of flow—medical leadership, patient flow, customer service, and patient safety—and how to “hardwire” efficient process for each.

  Participants will learn:

  • Why hardwiring flow helps organizations maximize the “Three Es”: Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Execution;
  • How to implement a proven methodology for improving patient flow;
  • Why it’s important to engage physicians in the flow process (and how to do so);
  • How to apply the principles of better patient flow to emergency departments, inpatient experiences, and surgical processes.

• 

  Mark Blatt, MD, MBA

  Worldwide Medical Director
  Intel

  Collaborative Workflows: Empowering Providers and Patients to Lower Costs and Improve Care Delivery Outcomes

  Bio:

  Dr. Blatt joined Intel in the summer of 2000 working in the New Business Group. He is currently Worldwide Medical Director in the Sales and Marketing Group. In this role he is concentrating on how HIT infrastructure can enable Providers to deliver cost effective, quality care to a wide cohort of citizens. He has a particular interest in Mobile Point of Care, Cloud Computing, Security and Care Delivery reform.

  Prior to joining Intel he was the managing partner of a five-provider group in Family Practice. He practiced family medicine for 15 years before returning to Yale University to earn his MBA (2000) in finance. Dr. Blatt earned his Medical Doctorate at Albany Medical College of Union University (1979). He completed a residency in Family Practice at the University of Connecticut (1982). He then served two years as a Commissioned Officer in the US Public Health Service before starting private practice.

  Topic:

  Collaborative Workflows: Empowering Providers and Patients to Lower Costs and Improve Care Delivery Outcomes

  The rising cost of HealthCare delivery threatens the ability of both governments and private provider organizations to offer quality healthcare services to their citizens and customers. There is mounting evidence that collaboration between provider organizations and patients can dramatically lower the cost of care delivery and improve outcomes

  For instance, with coordinated cared built around PCMH principals, both readmission to the hospital and unnecessary trips to the ED can be lowered by >30% or more.  By empowering patients directly with access to their EMR data including lab data unneeded trips to the doctor’s office can be dramatically lowered and potential communications errors can be diminished. 

  In times when we are looking for dramatic improvements in efficiencies, we must establish collaborative workflows that diminish delays, reduce cycle times and improve first time quality offer improvements in outcomes, and approach the order of magnitude so to “afford quality healthcare for all” going forward. Collaborative workflows are the foundation for Moore’s Law for Healthcare: “Doubling the number of patients cared for, while reducing the cost of care by half”.

  Come hear how collaborative workflows supported by an advanced secure ICT infrastructure can help transform your healthcare delivery organization.

• 

  Joshua Kosowsky, MD, FACEP

  Brigham & Women's Hospital Clinical Director
  Assistant Professor Harvard

  Achieving Patient Flow Efficiency in the ED

  Bio:

  Dr. Kosowsky is a nationally recognized expert clinician and lecturer who serves as Vice Chair and Clinical Director of Emergency Medicine at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boson, MA. He is a former Fulbright Scholar and a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School.

  Dr. Kosowsky and his team at Brigham & Women’s have been recognized nationally for their pioneering work in redesigning the delivery of emergency medicine services. Their success has been featured in The Boston Globe and in US News and World Report. Dr. Kosowsky leads a national course on emergency department design for healthcare and design professionals sponsored jointly by Harvard Medical School and the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

  Topic:

  Achieving Patient Flow Efficiency in the ED

  The Emergency Department (ED) at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Boston, MA) faced a strong need for change.  The ED was overcrowded, walk-outs were approaching 4%, and patient satisfaction ranked as low as the 6th percentile among like-sized level I trauma centers. This performance led us to undertake a comprehensive evaluation of our care model and set new goals.

  We considered adding space to reduce overcrowding, but there was no appetite for continuing dysfunctional processes on a larger scale.  Instead, breaking down each element of our care model from the perspective of the patient, we set out to design a better approach to flow.

  Over several months, a new front-end model of care emerged. We grew volume and exceeded our goals within two years. Median door-to-bed time declined by 80% (from FY09 to FY11) to less than 10 minutes.  The walk-out rate fell to 1% or less on a consistent basis.  Patient satisfaction now ranks in the 98^th to 99^th percentile. Using this patient-centered approach to ED flow, we were able to redesign an improved model for the delivery of emergency care.

  Upon completion of the session, participants will be able to:

  • Deconstruct a highly complex clinical process using LEAN principles
  • Reconfigure emergency department patient flow to improve efficiency and patient experience
  • Adopt a team-based approach to the design, testing, and implementation of change

  ACCESS THIS PRESENTATION

• 

  Deborah Kaczynski, MS

  Senior Administrative Director, UPMC
  IHI Patient Flow Faculty

  Optimizing Patient Flow in Real Time

  Bio:

  Deborah Kaczynski is a Sr. Administrative Director at UPMC Mercy—part of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Health System in Pittsburgh, PA. She has administrative oversight of Pharmacy Services, Care Management, Environmental Services, Food and Nutrition, Capacity Management and Organizational Excellence. Kaczynski has been involved in quality and operational improvement, specializing in capacity management for the past eight years, both in day-to-day hospital operations and in a consultative role. She helps support UPMC’s patient flow initiatives and is faculty for IHI’s Learning and Innovation Community on Improving Flow Through Acute Care Settings. She has assisted several large health systems in their patient flow work, including Kaiser Permanente, VA, Christianna, and Johns Hopkins.

  Kaczynski co-authored an article on patient flow which appeared in the May 2011 issue of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety entitled “Timeliness and Efficiency: Using Real-Time Demand Capacity Management to Improve Hospital-wide Patient Flow”.

  Topic:

  Optimizing Patient Flow in Real Time

  Inefficient patient flow can have an adverse effect on many areas of the hospital.  It is important for patients to be at the “right level of care” at all times.  Boarding of patients in the Emergency Department (ED) or the Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) can greatly affect quality of care and have a detrimental affect financially on your hospital. While the ED is often the center of attention with respect to patient flow issues, a strategic, hospital wide approach, utilizing Real Time Demand Capacity Management is necessary and will lead to much greater success in optimizing patient flow within your hospital.  With this improvement in patient flow, harmful delays and ED overcrowding can be reduced.  This will help to ensure that your patients are at the right level of care all of the time.

  Objectives: 

  • Discuss the difference between traditional approaches to patient flow versus a hospital wide strategy.
  • Provide tools, strategies and case study of how to operationalize Real Time Demand Capacity Management to improve hospital wide patient flow.

• 

  Anne Jadwin, RN, MSN, AOCN, NE-BC

  Chief Nursing Officer; Vice President of Nursing
  Fox Chase Cancer Center

  Promoting a Culture of Accountability - New Approaches for Maximizing Patient Flow and Reducing LOS

  Bio:

  Anne Jadwin has been a registered nurse for 33 years, 28 years of which has been in oncology.  She has held management positions for 27 years. Anne’s responsibilities include oversight of inpatient and ambulatory care nursing departments, supervision of case management department, staff development, patient education, the nursing supervisors, and oversight of Magnet status.

  She has been actively involved as a member of the Oncology Nursing Society, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Organization of Nursing Leaders, AONE, and the ANA.  She has lectured extensively as a regional and national speaker on nursing management and oncology issues.

  In 2012 she was recognized with the ACCC Innovator Award for her efforts in leading efforts to maximize bed capacity and improve patient flow.

  Topic:

  Promoting a Culture of Accountability - New Approaches for Maximizing Patient Flow and Reducing LOS

  With finite numbers of licensed beds and increasing patient volumes, Fox Chase Cancer Center faced a capacity crisis hospitals nationwide are experiencing. An increasing number of “crunch days” created stress for staff, delayed urgent hospital transfers, and forced the cancer center to cancel routine admissions. Additionally, Fox Chase used many manual systems for key processes such as bed requests, discharge notification, and clean room notification, which increased wait times.

  An evidence-based, best practices methodology was utilized to tackle these complex problems. Based on the adopted patient flow improvements, this Cancer Center now outperforms Medicare and Cancer Alliance Hospital targets for ALOS in 85% of its top 65 medical and surgical oncology DRGs. Fox Chase also became more data-driven in its approach to managing patient flow, which reduced hospital length of stay, and improved bed availability for patients.

  Learn the details of this successful approach.

  Presentation objectives

  • Participants will describe several best practices that can be deployed to improve patient flow and reduce hospital length of stay.
  • Participants will demonstrate an understanding of an accountable culture through employee engagement in project work and outcome measurement.
  • Participants will cite several examples of outcome measures used to evaluate an effective bed management program.

• 

  Douglas Carlson, M.D. and Julie Bruns

  Chief of Pediatric Hospital Medicine and Director, Call Center and Market Research
  St. Louis Children’s Hospital and BJC Healthcare

  Just Say YES: One Program’s Experience with Rapid Acceptance and Improving Quality

  Bio:

  Douglas Carlson, M.D. is the medical director of Children’s Direct Transfer Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Dr. Carlson is Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Division of Pediatric Hospital Medicine at Washington University. He is board certified in pediatrics and pediatric emergency medicine. Dr. Carlson oversees clinical programs at St. Louis Children’s Hospital as well as two community hospitals: Missouri Baptist Medical Center and Progress West Health Care Center. In 2012 Dr. Carlson received the “Award for Clinical Excellence” from the Society of Hospital Medicine.

  ______________________

  Julie Bruns has been in the health care call center industry for twenty-one years, all at BJC HealthCare in St. Louis, MO. At BJC, Bruns manages a call center with a volume of 500,000 calls per year and a staff of 80 FTE. She also oversees the Market Research functions for BJC. She is a member of the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development (SHSMD). She is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and often provides commentary on healthcare call centers for national publications.

  Topic:

  Just Say YES: One Program’s Experience with Rapid Acceptance and Improving Quality

  Making the transfer/ patient acceptance process fast and easy is a crucial element of success for tertiary hospitals and regional referral centers.  In this session, you’ll hear how a pediatric academic hospital converted its existing physician access line from a “concierge” service to a full service, 24 x 7 transfer/referral center, growing call volume and patient transfers every year since its inception in 2010.

  Children’s Direct from St. Louis Children’s Hospital is the one stop shop a referring physician can call for any service he/she needs.  The “just say yes” philosophy and service-oriented culture has resulted in high physician satisfaction.  The medical control model is designed for quick patient acceptance with appropriate input from consulting services.  Our data collection and transparent review of calls has become a valuable component of the hospital’s quality improvement efforts.  In addition to coordinating transfers and unplanned admissions, Children’s Direct offers real time phone consultations with any specialty, and assistance with scheduling outpatient appointments.

  Participants in this session will:

  • Understand a medical control model that allows for quick acceptance, using Hospitalists as the accepting physicians for all admissions to the floor.
  • Learn how the transfer center has achieved volume growth and high user satisfaction, with 100% avocation from physicians surveyed.
  • Review quality improvement activities, including the unplanned ICU transfer rate used by the transfer center as a key quality measure.
  • Understand the roles of staff, medical control physicians and medical director in the success of the transfer center.
  • Hear about future growth opportunities for the transfer center that apply to any hospital.

• 

  Dike Drummond, MD

  Physician Coach and Healthcare Speaker
  Mayo Trained Family Practice Physician

  Transforming Resistance: How to Engage Physicians and Staff to Adopt and Maintain Meaningful Change

  Bio:

  Dike Drummond, MD is a Mayo Clinic trained Family Practice physician with a unique combination of ground level experience in primary care, physician leadership and personal and business development. He has been a speaker, trainer and executive coach to entrepreneurs and physicians since 2002.

  Dr. Drummond is the founder of TheHappyMD.com providing stress management, burnout prevention and leadership development coaching and consulting to physicians and healthcare organizations. He is the creator of the 1 Minute Stress Relief Program online training for physicians and author of the forthcoming book, “Beat Burnout Field Manual for the Busy Doctor.” Dike is a regular contributor to popular healthcare blogs such as KevinMD, HuffingtonPost and TheDoctorWeighsIn. He can be reached through his website at www.TheHappyMD.com.

  Topic:

  Transforming Resistance: How to Engage Physicians and Staff to Adopt and Maintain Meaningful Change

  As the pace of change in healthcare accelerates, the need to quickly implement new practices – such as improved patient flow – becomes more and more urgent. Yet nearly every change effort is met with  grumbling and resistance from top to bottom of the organizational chart – the doctors through the front line staffers. We know optimizing patient flow provides instant benefits to the patient, the doctor, the staff and the organization…so why is it so darn hard to implement and what can we do to get better at enrolling the people in the front lines?

  Presentation Objectives:

  • Understand why resistance to change is normal in any change/innovation effort and how to avoid turning it into a “battle.”
  • How to up-level your communication when you meet resistance to avoid getting stuck in the weeds.
  • Understand the #1 motivator of physicians and how to use this core desire to maintain physician enrollment throughout the project.
  • Identify simple communication errors that will stop your project dead – and how to avoid them.
  • Share specific leadership lessons from successful implementation projects.

• 

  Tom Kurtz, MHS, PA-C, NREMT-P

  Associate Hospital Director
  Temple University Hospital

  Crafting a Comprehensive Communications Center

  Bio:

  Tom Kurtz was an original member of Temple Transport Team (T3), the health system’s critical care transport team. In 2005 he was appointed as Administrative Director of Operations for T3. Kurtz is now the Associate Hospital Director of Emergency Services, Logistics, and Specialty Care Transport. He oversees the Emergency Department (ED) and Transfer Center of Temple University Hospital in addition to T3.

  Kurtz’s expertise includes ED related practices and the flow of patients into and out of that department. Kurtz has years of experience helping facilitate the transfer and transport of patients in need of a higher level of care, and has developed detailed algorithms and check-lists related to making this process as seamless and safe as possible. Kurtz specializes in ensuring risks are minimized during the transfer process, and that high quality care is delivered during air or ground transport; a key component being efficient patient flow processes.

  Topic:

  Crafting a Comprehensive Communications Center

  Nationwide, hospitals and health systems are designing programs that accomplish the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Triple Aims: Improve the health of the population; Enhance the patient experience; and Reduce the per capita cost of care.  One way to accomplish these goals is by creating a Comprehensive Communications Center. These centers can provide the necessary resources and services to improve access to care, enhance patient flow, and ensure high quality/low cost healthcare is provided to patients in a manner focused on the patient experience.

  This presentation will describe the necessary components of a Comprehensive Communication Center including pathways to accept patients from referring groups, integration of transfer center and air/ground transportation services, synergy among departments involved with patient flow (bed management, environmental services, etc.), and initiatives that provide follow-up services to patients and physicians in an effort to promote continuity of care.

  Presentation Learning Objectives:

  1)    Provide an overview of the IHI’s Triple Aim and its relevance to a Patient Flow Center or Comprehensive Communications Center;

  2)    Provide evidence of the importance of communication among healthcare providers;

  3)    Provide the necessary components of a Comprehensive Communications Center enabling participants to replicate initiatives at their respective institutions.

• 

  Bonnie Barndt-Maglio, RN, PhD and Patricia Hines, RN, PhD

  Vice Presidents
  The Camden Group

  Achieving Perioperative Efficiency to Smooth the Hospital's Patient Throughput

  Bio:

  Dr. Barndt-Maglio is a vice president at The Camden Group. She has extensive expertise in effective delivery of patient care, resource management, operations, and planning. Dr. Barndt-Maglio has a strong clinical and operations background having held administrative and clinical positions in several healthcare organizations including community and specialty hospitals as well as academic medical centers.

  As a consultant, Dr. Barndt-Maglio assists a variety of healthcare organizations in designing and implementing processes to deliver quality patient care through efficient resource utilization. Additionally, she has worked in the areas of outcome management, system redesign and process improvement, strategic planning, and financial analysis. Her consulting work also includes care model redesign, development of centralized scheduling and quality services and performance monitoring systems and tools.
  _____________________

  Dr. Hines is a vice president at The Camden Group and a clinical and operations expert with a strong nursing services background. Her focus includes nursing practice and operations, case management, critical care, patient throughput, and Joint Commission preparation. With more than 30 years of healthcare experience, Dr. Hines has assisted healthcare organizations through her clinical and consulting experience with operational assessments, implementation support, and interim management.

  Dr. Hines is a member of the American College of Health Care Executives, the American Organization of Nurse Executives, the Association of California Nurse Leaders, Case Management Society of America, and the American Association of Critical Care Nurses. She is an accredited case manager and a published author.

  Topic:

  Achieving Perioperative Efficiency to Smooth the Hospital's Patient Throughput

  Perioperative Services patients are a significant consideration when managing daily patient flow within hospitals. Although a small percent of patients are emergent and therefore unplanned, the majority are scheduled well in advance and their post-operative care requirements are predictable and can be managed to support patient throughput.

  Smoothing the perioperative schedule requires data to trend admission volumes by day of week, surgeon, procedure, and post-operative level of care to establish a long-term baseline of patients entering the system for admission. Combining this data with a rigorous bed capacity analysis that calculates individual care unit census by day of week and time of day provides a platform to effectively schedule perioperative cases as well as project future bed requirements. Reviewing this data with clinical department leaders to plan ahead on a five to seven day basis facilitates the patient placement by anticipating potential bottlenecks, assuring the appropriate number of staff are available, and establishing priority admissions if necessary.

  Increasing perioperative efficiency to schedule patients requires ongoing data analysis, planning, and participation of an engaged multidisciplinary team. The final outcomes include the timely transfer of surgical patients to the inpatient units, minimizing the risk of canceling revenue generating cases, and improving the patients experience and the quality of care they receive.

  Session Objectives:

  • List common drivers of Perioperative scheduling
  • Describe the effect of Perioperative scheduling on hospital throughput
  • Evaluate LEAN methods to determine bed capacity and effect on patient flow
  • Discuss strategies to smooth Perioperative scheduling in order to increase department efficiency and facilitate hospital patient flow

• 

  Larry Garrett

  Larry Garrett, PhD, MPH, BSN
  HealthInsight

  Effective Care Transitions: What We Can Do to Reduce Hospital Readmissions

  Bio:

  Larry received dual undergraduate degrees in Behavioral Science and Health and Nursing as well as a Master in Public Health from the University of Utah. He was the first Health Informatics Fellow with the National Foundation for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a former Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prior to working at HealthInsight, he was a partner in a Public Health software and consulting company. In this capacity, he developed software applications that supported the underlying business process and reporting requirements associated with Public Health. As a consultant, he conducted program reviews for a variety of state and local health departments including issues associated with data collection, the redesign of business practices and workflows and reimbursement for services. He recently finished a PhD at Western Michigan University in Interdisciplinary Health Science.

  Topic:

  Effective Care Transitions: What We Can Do to Reduce Hospital Readmissions

  In October 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began penalizing hospitals for excessive readmissions within 30 days of discharge for heart failure, pneumonia, and myocardial infarction. Nationally,1 in 5 Medicare beneficiaries will experience hospital readmission within 30 days of discharge with estimates that up to 76% of these are due to problems with the transition of care. Medicare patients report greater dissatisfaction related to discharge than to any other aspect of care and more importantly, avoidable hospital readmissions place a physical and emotional burden on patients.

  This session will examine care transitions and the components necessary to assure successful outcomes. Additionally, it will examine how information technology can be used to reduce unnecessary readmissions in a variety of settings including: hospital-to-hospital, skilled nursing facilities, home health, and home. It will also examine the role of community based interventions and the needs for technology support with nontraditional partners within the community.

  Learning Objectives:

  • Describe the current/future state of hospital readmissions
  • Define why care transitions are important
  • Understand the important role information technology has in reducing hospital readmissions

• 

  Alexandra Brown, MSN, RN

  Clinical Access Coordinator
  UMASS Memorial Medical Center

  Patient Access Centers: From Infancy Through Adolescence

  Bio:

  Alexandra Brown is a registered nurse with over 14 years experience in medical/surgical, pediatric, emergency nursing, management and nursing education. She has worked at small community hospitals and large teaching institutions during her career. In her role at UMASS Memorial Medical Center, Brown serves as Clinical Access Coordinator in the Patient Access Center.

  Topic:

  Patient Access Centers: From Infancy Through Adolescence

  Patient Access Centers drive hospitals to get the right patient to the right place while increasing revenue and managing patient flow.  During this presentation, June Ellis and Alexandra Brown will discuss the history as to why a patient access center was necessary for the multi-campus UMASS hospital and the lessons learned from the beginning until now (infancy through adolescence). They will also discuss why registered nurses were an integral part of the patient access puzzle, and the additional opportunities available to help make the access center a success.  Key topics to be reviewed during this presentation are:  An overview of the patient access center, the auto accept process, time sensitive activations, toxicology consults, primary care affiliations, ambulance transfers, and the increased utilization of a “sister Hospital”.  Ellis and Brown will discuss lessons learned as programs were rolled out in the patient access center.

   

  At the end of this presentation the learner will be able to:

  • Verbalize the importance of strong clinical RN’s in a patient access center.
  • Verbalize cost saving and accountability for timely patient transfers by overseeing ambulance contracts.
  • Identify processes to streamline or navigate a complex healthcare system.
  • Verbalize advantages of accepting and /or transferring patients between a multi-system campus.

• 

  Fran Dirksmeier and Jennifer Jefferson

  General Manager, Global Asset Management, GE Healthcare
  Managing Principal, Clinical Operations, GE Healthcare

  No Wait. No Harm. Optimizing Length of Stay While Improving Patient Safety

  Bio:

  Fran Dirksmeier brings more than 25 years of experience to his position as General Manager, Global Asset Management for GE Healthcare.  He’s recognized in the healthcare industry for being both a visionary leader and a strategic entrepreneur with a track record for bringing out the best in people to drive growth and operational excellence. 

  As co-founder of Agility Healthcare Solutions., Dirksmeier served as chief executive officer, growing the company into a multi-million-dollar venture that solved critical equipment management and patient flow challenges.   Agility offers enterprise visibility and management of patient flow, assets, beds and rooms, staff, emergency department activities, and surgical services processes in an integrated, modular application.   GE Healthcare acquired Agility in 2008 and made Dirksmeier the leader of GE Healthcare’s and Agility’s integrated solutions, where he and his team have set their sights on tackling more than $100B of operational waste in the global healthcare system. In 2012, the team was recognized with Frost & Sullivan’s 2012 award for Customer Value Enhancement in Hospital Operations Management.

  _____________

  Jennifer Jefferson is Managing Principal in the Clinical Operations practice, a professional services organization focused on enabling healthcare organizations to deliver safe, more efficient patient care.  In her role, she is responsible for developing the strategy, organization structure, staffing and execution of engagements with Clinical Operations’ clients.

  Jennifer has a history of delivering transformational results for health systems in the US.  She focuses on improving utilization of healthcare capacity by delivering solutions that predictably reduce congestion and lead to lower cost and a better patient experience. Prior to joining GE, Jennifer worked in healthcare supply chain management and e-commerce with multiple Fortune 500 companies.  She earned her BS in Business Administration from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

  Topic:

  No Wait. No Harm. Optimizing Length of Stay While Improving Patient Safety

   

  Imagine a truly frictionless patient experience, free of delays and waits like…

  • Patients waiting for admission
  • Rooms waiting for cleaning   
  • Physicians waiting for equipment 
  • Patients waiting to be transported 
  • Families waiting for news  on the status of a loved one
  • Everyone waiting for a discharge

  GE Healthcare envisions a world of “No Wait States.” Through intelligent hospital operations management, that vision is quickly becoming a reality.  Data and analytics–like never before–are providing operational insight, hindsight and foresight.  

  Join the GE Healthcare break out session at the Patient Flow Summit, on Tuesday, April 30 where Fran Dirksmeier and Jennifer Jefferson  present clinical and operational strategies to “Lose the Wait”. They’ll discuss real results and how facilities are benefiting from these operational strategies, including a discussion of potential returns for hospital stakeholders. 

• 

  Norm Dinerman, MD and Dawn Kowalski

  Medical Director, Eastern Maine Medical Center
  Care Facilitation, Riverside Regional Medical Center

  Strategies and Tactics to Achieve Physician Alignment with Transfer Center Function

  Bio:

  Dr. Dinerman is the Medical Director of the Transfer Center of Eastern Maine, the Tele-health program and the Regional Health Care Partnership Provider Relations program at Eastern Maine Medical Center (EMMC). He also provides medical oversight of the system for transfer and transport of patients to EMMC and telemedicine activities, as well as the statewide LifeFlight of Maine air and ground critical care transport teams and the MedComm Communications Center. He continues to practice clinically as an emergency medicine physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine at EMMC. 

  Dinerman served as the Chief of the Emergency Medicine Service at EMMC for eighteen years and also served as the State EMS Medical Director for Maine. He is a former member of the National Association of EMS Physicians where he served as the Chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee.  He has served as a member of the EMS Technical Assistance Team for the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration on multiple occasions.

  __________________

  Dawn Kowalski manages Care Facilitation for Riverside Health System in Newport News, Virginia. Within her areas of responsibility, Kowalski covers Riverside’s medical call center and managed services—which includes nursing, patient transfer center, bed management system, health system transportation hub, switchboard services and the Riverside Central Transition Team for Life Long Health.  In addition, Kowalski engages in strategic planning and culture change implementation to provide best practice outcomes and company-wide profitability. She also facilitates system-wide operational efficiencies through Six Sigma Lean methodology.

  Kowlaski has 15 years of healthcare experience as an information architect in clinical and business intelligence. Prior to coming to Riverside Health System, she managed a network oncology program, and facilitated Joint Commission accreditation for a large healthcare system.

  Topic:

  Strategies and Tactics to Achieve Physician Alignment with Transfer Center Function

  The role of the Transfer Center is to broker, facilitate and choreograph the management of a transfer of a patient with an unscheduled demand for care, as requested by a referring clinician.  The mission of the health care system as it relates to a transfer request is to achieve continuity of care by linkage of providers, integration of assets and alignment of management plans.  While a transfer process exists in all contemporary health care settings, the creation of a transfer center at a tertiary care hospital represents a comparatively recent attempt to achieve systematization.  Historically, at each tertiary care institution, the transfer process evolved to meet the needs of the accepting physician, and the operations specific to the function of the hospital itself.

  The transfer of a patient is a physician prescriptive event and is predicated on an agreement between two clinicians.  The negotiation involves a complex and consequential calculus on the part of the involved physicians which is time dependent by virtue of disease and competition as well as political, economic and practice constraints.  Clearly, the transfer center sits at the intersection of intra-hospital operations, inter-hospital logistics and clinical care.  It is not surprising that the creation of a transfer center and its insinuation between the involved clinicians requires adaptation on behalf of all concerned to achieve vesting in a systematized process.   Absent such vesting, physicians will default to ad hoc solutions to managing transfers.  At the least, such individual or service specific management processes will frustrate all concerned.   At worst, they can imperil the patient at a moment of considerable vulnerability and subject the sending or receiving hospital to statutory violations of federal or state law.

  This talk will discuss strategies and tactics to further the alignment of physician behavior and practice with that of the transfer center in the interest of achieving a sustainable systematized approach to the transfer process.

• 

  Jason Burch, EMT, EMD

  Director of Patient Transfer Centers, Professional Services
  Central Logic

  Checklist for Transfer Center Optimization

  Bio:

  Jason Burch has built and managed transfer centers in four states, and implemented patient flow solutions nationwide. He has been actively involved in ED practices for more than 10 years, and has firsthand experience working as an EMD/EMT and Senior Dispatcher. With expertise in critical care procedures, Jason led the team that managed HCA Gulf Coast’s HealthOne Transfer Center. Following a successful implementation, Jason was recruited to start HCA North Texas’ transfer center. The North Texas model was a groundbreaking endeavor, and garnered nationwide attention as a best practice in patient flow procedures.

  Jason joined Central Logic in 2011 to serve as the Director of Transfer Centers and Professional Services. He is actively involved as a patient flow, transfer center, and capacity optimization expert. Jason continually demonstrates thought-leadership in the patient flow industry as he consults for hospitals nationwide.

  Topic:

  Checklist for Transfer Center Optimization

  A transfer center acts as a hub for patient referrals between a healthcare system and all the clinics, hospitals, and physician offices in its region. These centers allow referring providers to make one phone call to send their patients directly from their facilities to the appropriate level of acute-care. This practice allows patients to quickly receive the level of care they need and enables hospitals to enhance operational efficiencies. 

  There are many details to consider when setting up a transfer center. Come learn the strategies and tactics behind transfer center creation that have led hospitals nationwide to recognize substantial contribution margins. With the correct transfer center workflows, staff configurations, brand awareness, and business intelligence tools, healthcare systems are enhancing patient care, optimizing capacity management, and increasing admissions.

  After this session, participants will:

  • Understand the resources and workflows needed to efficiently manage a transfer center
  • Take-home metrics detailing the ROI generated from transfer centers
  • Recognize how transfer centers reduce delays and wait times, while increasing patient care, hospital admissions, and operational efficiencies