Improving Hospital Access and Efficiency of Care for Our Community

Overcrowding and bottlenecks with patient flow plague hospitals and emergency rooms across the country. Reasons are many, but outcomes are the same: long waits and limited access to care. Ongoing evaluation of patient flow and key indicator data, including volume, length of stay, and resource utilization, resulted in a transformational change in how Mercy Hospital of Buffalo cares for patients needing emergency, observation and/or inpatient care. Using Lean methods and the Plan, Do, Study, Act model, the hospital implemented two strategies.