Confronting the Hospital Capacity Puzzle with Real-Time Dashboards

Managing hospital capacity can be like solving a giant puzzle. Healthcare systems across the country are faced with an unpredictable demand for beds and the need to supply the right resources to meet the needs of their patient populations.

Yale New Haven Health has taken an innovative approach to improving patient flow by creating a Capacity Command Center, where bed planners, housekeepers, transporters, care coordinators, and other critical members of patients’ care teams are co-located. Staff in the command center were able to identify and utilize an additional 148 beds during one of the peak weeks of flu season when compared to the same week from the previous year. They’ve also seen a 29.2% improvement in bed cleaning turnaround times, and a 12% reduction in intercampus transports from the ED.

“Through the CCC, we’re using the enormous amounts of data available from Epic and other sources to improve care, safety and the patient experience,” said Ohm Deshpande, MD, director of Utilization Review and Clinical Redesign. “The center provides the right information to the right people at the right time, to enable the right actions.”

Read more about Yale’s Capacity Command Center here. Epic community members can refer to Yale’s XGM presentation for more information.

Editor’s note, 3/24/20: Epic community members can read in-depth guidance about capacity management for COVID-19 in the Managing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) With Epic white paper.