Northwest Community Healthcare (NCH) yesterday announced the launch of a new care coordination model that improves how a patient is managed and monitored during their hospital stay. Using Care Logistics technology, patients are closely followed through admission, scheduling, transport and discharge. NCH is the first hospital in Illinois to adopt this new patient flow model.
“NCH is proud to invest in proven technologies that improve how we work and, more importantly, how we serve and care for our patients,” said Pat Stack, Vice President, Performance Improvement at NCH. “This care coordination model will help us more easily and effectively manage hospital resources during a patient’s stay.”
Referred to as Aim for Excellence, this new model will help staff better anticipate the need for services, improve the ability to schedule inpatient tests and treatments, decrease the time between interventions, reduce infection rates, and minimize a patient’s length of stay by half a day or more. For the first time, patients will receive a daily itinerary that tells them when procedures, diagnostic testing, or potential discharges or transfers will take place. Knowing what to expect and when will reduce anxiety and make it easier to schedule visits from loved ones.
At the core of Aim for Excellence is “The Hub,” a central control center managed by specially trained staff to help physicians and employees manage patient flow throughout the hospital. NCH also created a new clinical role—the clinical care coordinator or C3—as a key element of this new care coordination model. C3’s monitor the status of patients, provide support for test and treatment schedules, and facilitate smooth and timely transitions throughout a patient’s time at the hospital – from admission to discharge. More than 60 C3’s have been trained for this new position and are now working with all inpatient units including the emergency department, surgery, interventional radiology and the catheterization laboratory.
“Aim for Excellence helps Northwest Community Healthcare operate more efficiently, manage costs more effectively, and improve patient outcomes and the patient experience,” said Steve Scogna, President and CEO of NCH. “This is important for keeping our community healthy and continuing to grow NCH as a competitive, efficient and high quality system of care.”
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