Hospitalist's Innovation in ED Is a Plus for Patient Flow

HN: Is this a model that could work in other hospitals, regardless of size?

Dr. Chadaga: This project is made up of a few different parts. There is a part to deal with patient flow, which is working with nurses and supervisors to make sure patients get to the right room the first time. There is another piece involving communication with the ED to help navigate patients. And then there’s the work of actually taking care of boarded patients. I think almost any institution can benefit from one of those, depending on how you want to attack diversion or how you want to take care of these patients.

In terms of instituting the entire program, I think you have to look at your staffing, look at the support you have from your administration, and actually see if you have both diversion and boarded patients. But any one of those strategies can be instituted in almost any situation because I think we all have issues of patient flow.

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