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Intermountain Medical Center is the flagship hospital of the Intermountain Healthcare System. The 430-bed medical center is known for excellence in care and patient services, and is one of the most technologically advanced hospitals in America.

Challenge

Shortly after opening, Intermountain Medical Center experienced higher than expected occupancy rates, leading to significant patient flow challenges. Leadership sought greater efficiency in patient placement, care coordination, case management and environmental services in order to increase patient, physician and staff satisfaction.

Huron has a very professional team—engaging, trustworthy, and clear about goals. They are able to tell you what your performance looks like and what they can do for you. Then they deliver.” — Nancy Nowak, chief nursing office and vice president, clinical operations.

Approach

Huron worked closely with Intermountain staff to establish consistent processes and tools across all areas of clinical operations, including access, care delivery and transition management. This systematic, comprehensive approach created the equivalent of 21 virtual beds while improving patient satisfaction.

Improving interdisciplinary collaboration

Focusing on interdisciplinary care teams and transition management allowed Intermountain to provide the right care at the right time, while reducing length of stay.

Improving satisfaction

Intermountain saw significant increases in satisfaction among patient flow stakeholders.

“Our physician satisfaction has increased dramatically,” said William Hamilton, M.D., chief medical officer of Intermountain’s Urban Central Region. “I’m convinced that working with Huron to achieve better patient flow helped that.”

Producing sustainable results

Establishing consistent expectations and common goals helped create a high-performance work culture.

Outcomes

Increased capacity

• Provided the capacity to serve 2,200 additional patients each year

Improved efficiency

• Decreased bed turnaround time by 50 percent
• Decreased clean bed requests by 92 percent
• Significantly reduced the time to place patients into beds from all entry portals: direct admit, emergency department and post-anesthesia care unit

Increased patient satisfaction

• Improved scores on eight patient satisfaction questions related to patient flow and care coordination