The challenge

Community Regional Medical Center (Community) in California operates a business model where it can be denied reimbursement for care if patients are incorrectly admitted or stay longer than three days in the observation unit. It needed to improve patient flow to quickly triage patients within the emergency department and direct them to the appropriate level of care and time spent in the hospital.

Our solution

Working with TTEC, it developed a “Command Center” concept to optimize interface between humans and technology to build a better model of care delivery and improve bed utilization.

The command center combined disparate data into one system and created a structured process for communication. It standardized criteria to determine in-patient status, give staff access patient documentation in real time, and support effective communication during regular cross-functional “huddles.” Existing roles and functions within the organization were redesigned and repurposed to sustain the change.

The results

The command center program led to impressive results, including:

• Improved reimbursement for Medicare patients by $6 million
• Increased the number of bed days by more than 1,400
• Tripled the size of the observation unit to around 375 patients per month
• Reduced average patient observation stay from 36 hours to 22 hours