Seton Health/St. Mary's Hospital Emergency Department
Streamlining processes to bring an overcrowded ED into the 21st century
The Seton Health/St. Mary's concern:
Seton Health/St. Mary's Hospital ED in Troy, NY had a growing problem: overcrowding. Each year, 33,000 patients were visiting an ED built to handle roughly half that volume. The situation was causing dissatisfaction among customers and patients. The hospital looked to Pegasus Emergency Group for answers.
The Pegasus solution:
Dr. Jeffery Ruzich of Pegasus was brought on as Medical Director in 2004. His first step was to staff the ED completely with residency-trained and board-certified Emergency Medicine physicians. This immediately helped the overcrowded ED by expediting patient diagnoses and streamlining hospital admissions. But that was just the beginning. With a new ED facility in the works, Dr. Ruzich and his team of physicians quickly implemented procedures to improve patient care and satisfaction:
- Worked with the hospital medical staff, nursing administrators, and paramedic leaders to develop innovative protocols designed to expedite patient care in the waiting room, resulting in enhanced pain management and fever control
- Set the goal of initiating patient-physician contact within 30 minutes of arrival in the ED, which was met by expanding patient care areas
- Reduced walkouts by nearly 60%
- Expanded appropriate hospital admissions by 20%
- Increased ambulance transports by 7% in 2006 alone
- Developed plans for new state-of-the-art 24-bed Emergency Facility in 2007
- Implemented new Electronic Medical Record system and ED Ultrasound Unit in 2008
Sustained customer satisfaction:
The innovative procedures instituted by Pegasus led to immediate and lasting improvements in customer satisfaction. In 2004, Press Ganey scores increased by 7 - 10%, with a further 6% increase in 2005. Ever since there have been continued improvements, with the ED Fast Track ranking in the top 1%. At last, the Seton Health/St. Mary's Hospital ED was leading the way towards customer satisfaction in the 21st century.