Pacific Northwest Magnet-Designated Medical Center
Functional Capacity Expansion & Patient Flow Optimization
The Challenge
Pacific Northwest Regional Hospital (the Hospital) faced unprecedented service demands across its three primary service sectors and needed to dramatically optimize functional capacity, reduce length-of-stay, and cut throughput times for both admission and discharge.
The Solution
Improve Patient Flow & Functional Capacity. Michael Hill, MD and Associates deployed its proprietary Accountable Hospital Operations prototype, a physician-led framework that re-engineers patient flow from the front door through discharge, eliminating bottlenecks and dramatically opening the hospital to treating more patients more effectively.
The Results
Inpatient units increased functional bed capacity by 50–100 beds, with inpatient Medicare length-of-stay decreasing by 0.6 days just nine months after project completion.
ED boarding and ambulance diversion were virtually eliminated. Time from patient arrival to physician evaluation decreased from 110 minutes to just over 40 minutes, a 64% improvement. Patients leaving the ED without treatment decreased by nearly 26%. These improvements occurred despite a 30,000 visit (16%) annual increase in ED volume, with minimal or no additional staff and no expansion of space in a facility originally built for half the current volume.