Partnering Effectively With Inpatient Leaders for Improved Emergency Department Throughput

The boarding of patients is a root cause of overcrowding in a majority of emergency departments (EDs) nationwide. It reduces capacity to treat ED patients, decreases bed utilization, and compromises quality, safety, and the patient experience. Because of its systemic nature, it can only be effectively addressed through attention and commitment by all stakeholders. Once emergency departments have addressed throughput challenges they can solve on their own, they are ready to focus on proactive communication and teamwork with inpatient leaders to identify and transfer potential admissions more efficiently. No-delay nurse reports are an important tool to reduce time from admit orders to arrival on patient units. An effective hospital-wide flow committee also removes barriers for admitting patients quickly from the emergency department and addresses a revised January 1, 2014, Joint Commission standard that requires goal setting and measurement to mitigate and better manage the boarding of patients. This article discusses who should attend, the scope of the committee charter, how to use a hospital-wide throughput dashboard to measure results, and includes a sample agenda. It is recommended that the committee also assess and evaluate the effectiveness of the surge plan at least every three years to ensure that it meets goals identified by the committee. This article also shares best practices associated with two key tactics to support an effective hospital-wide throughput committee: inpatient bed huddles to expedite inpatient admissions and inpatient leader rounding, where the inpatient leader rounds on boarded ED patients to ensure safety and quality while also establishing ownership for the transition.