Clinicians use Epic dashboards during their daily huddle to manage throughput
At Lehigh Valley Health Network in Allentown, Pennsylvania, data drives decisions when it comes to efficient use of limited space for patient care. Clinical leads from all areas of the hospital meet each day to review occupancy, expected admissions, and discharges using the Capacity Management Dashboard in Epic.
Two years after launching the dashboard, they’ve seen a 5% decrease in length of stay for patients in the ED, a nearly 35% decrease in the time patients waited to be transferred to a new unit, and an almost 20% decrease in the time patients spent waiting to move from the ED to an inpatient bed.
“By having the Epic data readily available, any leader could walk into that room on any given day and see how we were doing,” says Kim Jordan, senior vice president and CNO of LVHN. “It’s very easy for me to log into Epic, click the dashboard, and run the most current data. It just helps you make much more informed decisions.”
LVHN and other Epic community members have seen additional benefits of having real-time patient flow data available in Epic. Shortly after it launched the dashboard, LVHN was able to eliminate ED diversions by streamlining its transfer and discharge processes. Yale New Haven Health reduced bed cleaning times by nearly 30% using the dashboard in its Capacity Command Center.
Epic community members can learn more about LVHN’s use of the Capacity Management Dashboard during daily huddles in the Success at 7 newsletter.
