Case Study - Q-Flow in Evans Hospital
Background
A patient tracking system, built by Q-nomy's partner ACF on Q-nomy's Q-Flow platform, has been successfully tested and used at Fort Carson’s Robinson Family Medicine Clinic. It is also in use or being fielded at over 13 Army and Navy installations including Joint Base Lewis- McChord and Forts Riley, Benning, and Drum, and at Fort Sam Houston, as well as civilian hospitals throughout the United States.
The Solution
When arriving at a clinic, the patient signs in at a computer kiosk that prints out a ticket. The ticket number identifies a beneficiary category and the patient’s place in line within that category. Warrior Transition Battalion and other Active Duty Soldiers, Same Day Surgery, Discharge, and Emergency Room patients have priority at the Pharmacy and Laboratory. Regardless of category, a patient’s place in line is secured after waiting five minutes.
“We’re always looking for new and better methods to improve our patients’ healthcare experience,” said hospital Commander Col. Jimmie O. Keenan. “We expect the new Q-Flow system to reduce all our patients’ wait times.”
Q-Flow automates patient reception and tracking procedures. It provides the hospital staff with visual cues to supplement patient care and employs kiosks, scanners and live dashboard displays to more efficiently process and track patients. "
Under the hospital’s Clinical lnformatics Branch’s supervision, three University of Colorado at Colorado Springs intern students documented the Q-Flow related processes. Everard said this helped the CIB develop hospital staff and patient focused Q-Flow Standard Operating Procedures. Every school semester, UCCS interns continue to assist with process improvement initiatives.
The Result
“‘The new system is a central component to efficient lobby management. Queuing patients into the system as they arrive helps manage the patient flow process,” said EACH’s Q-Flow’s proponent Eric Everard. “It also allows us to establish accessible metrics, determine inefficiencies, identify best practices and optimize clinic resources to improve each patient’s experience.”
Everard said its other benefits include centralized control and recording previously unknown patient processing times that hospital leaders will use to improve service quality and accuracy throughout the hospital. It also provides patients and staff with real-time information through audio and visual announcements on televisions and computers.
