Mercy Health-Springfield (Ohio) Regional Medical Center reduced emergency department lengths of stay for behavioral health patients by 64% thanks to a collaboration with a healthcare consulting firm.
Mercy Health-Springfield partnered with Conduit Health Partners' nurse-driven model to predict and manage patient volumes, direct admissions, physician-to-physician consultations and emergency medical services coordination, according to a June 11 hospital news release shared with Becker's. Nurses start with a bedside checklist to create an electronic bed request in Epic. The process reduced the average number of phone calls to the emergency department and time talking during the calls.
"Like many EDs across the country, we faced significant challenges getting behavioral health patients transferred to the right setting and level of care in a timely manner," Frank Farkash, DNP, RN, chief nursing officer with Mercy Health-Clermont Hospital in Batavia, Ohio, said in the release. The hospital is part of Bon Secours Mercy Health, the parent organization of Mercy Health-Springfield. "This slowed down the care process for acute behavioral health patients in need of more appropriate therapeutic environments."
Bon Secours Mercy Health plans to expand the workflow program to two additional hospitals this year.