Health Care : Current Reviews

Triad approach to effectively managing a large open observation department while decreasing costs and length of stay

World Congress & Expo on Healthcare IT and Nursing

August 21-22, 2018 | Paris, France

Christin Ray,Rebecca Gomez,Tia Llewellyn

Florida Hospital Orlando, USA

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Health Care Current Reviews

Abstract:

Florida Hospital Orlando is a non-profit, quaternary care hospital that has 1,368 acute-care medical beds with an open, 81-bed observation unit. We accept most patients who are observation status, regardless of diagnosis or complexity with minimal exclusion criteria. Managing and directing care effectively in an open observation department model is vital to successfully decreasing costs, decreasing length of stay, and improving patient outcomes. The triad leadership approach to the observation care model has been found to create an environment of ownership, drives throughput, quality, and hospital capacity. As a team we coordinate care among a large number of hospitalists and specialists, as well as drive early identification of barriers and needs for a safe discharge. We will discuss our challenges and successes in building efficiency, ensuring quality of care, and driving down costs in this busy observation unit. Through consistent physician, nursing, and care management leadership, this unit has found ways to work more efficiently and improve outcomes for patients. Objective 1: Discuss mechanisms to manage a high-volume unit with many providers while maintaining high quality outcomes Objective 2: Explore strategies to manage highly complex and challenging observation patients without compromising quality of care Objective 3: Develop consistent procedures to decrease length of stay in a large, open unit Objective 4: Analyze strategies for becoming sustainably cost-effective to meet the expanding role of observation care

Biography :

Christin Ray graduated from Florida Hospital College of Health Sciences, and completed Graduate Nurse Residency at Florida Hospital Orlando. She has experience in Surgical, Transplant, and Medical PCU and ICU. Prior to the Nurse Manager role, she was the Nurse Educator for PCU and Observation. She has been the Nurse Manager of the Florida Hospital Orlando observation unit for three years during which time the observation unit size has tripled. Tia Llewellyn graduated from the University of Central Florida with undergraduate and graduate degrees in Social Work. She has experience working with Children and Families in the community prior to coming to Florida Hospital. She has worked in the Florida Hospital Orlando observation unit for three years, a time-period during which it tripled in size. Rebecca Gomez graduated from the University of Florida College of Medicine and completed a residency in Family Medicine at Florida Hospital in Orlando, where she was also Chief Resident. She is the Medical Director for the observation unit at Florida Hospital Orlando, a 81-bed open unit at a quaternary care facility, and chairs a system-level committee that oversees the observation units at an additional eight facilities.

E-mail: christin.ray@flhosp.org

tia.llewellyn@flhosp.org 

Rebecca.gomez.md@flhosp.org