Aultman Fast Track

Abstract

Session J presented Saturday, September 29, 11:30 am-12:30 pm Purpose: We have identified the need to provide more time efficient medical care to patients with minor medical conditions. We would like to increase the total satisfaction of the patients as well as the staff. Design: Fast Track was a process improvement project. Setting: This Hospital is located in Canton, OH is a Level 2 trauma center with approximately 700 beds. The ED has 53 beds, and a volume of more than 80,000 patients. Participants/Subjects: Participants in the project included all ED staff and some Emergency Room Physicians. Methods: A team was developed for the Fast Track project. The team consisted of an ED staff RN, ED assistant nurse manager, ED executive director, and the APP director. The project team applied to The Academy of Excellence in Healthcare (AEH) to receive training and coaching with our project. The first AEH session was in July 2017 and the 2nd in October 2017. Upon return from the 1st session, we met with all key stakeholders which would be affected by the change in process. We also added additional front line staff to our project team. In addition, education was developed by our project team, which was provided to the employees that would be working in triage and Fast Track. We developed a questionnaire to gauge patient satisfaction with Fast Track: 1. Were you greeted and seen by a provider in a timely manner? 2. Please rate your satisfaction with being placed directly into a room. 3. Did the care provided by our team meet your expectations? 4. Please rate your satisfaction with the time from arrival to discharge. 5. How would you rate your overall experience with the fast track process? The goals set forth were a TAT of 90 mins or less with a stretch goal of 75 minutes. In addition, we wanted to decrease our LWBS to <2 percent, stretch goal of less than 1 percent. Results/Outcomes: The 3 day pilot was held on October 2-4, 2017, 10a-1030p. The average TAT for green team during the months of June-September 2017, was 139 minutes. The Fast Track TAT for our pilot was 98 minutes. LWBS during the pilot was .83 percent, June - September 2017 it was 2.15 percent. We received 60 comment cards from patients out of the 125 patients seen in Fast Track. Patient comments indicated satisfaction in getting in and out of the ED in a timely manner. Implications: The 3 day pilot of the Fast Track was considered a success, the Fast Track went live permanently on December 4, 2017. The success of our project can be related to our training at AEH, engaging key stakeholders, engaging staff, and auditing of the process. We are currently in the process of evaluating data from our first 30 days of operation. Our plan is to meet with staff that have worked in triage and Fast Track to identify opportunities for improvement with Fast Track. Utilizing available resources ie AEH and benchmarking with comparable facilities, allowed us to be successful with our project.