Patient Throughput

Service Overview

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The IMA Consulting Patient Throughput Services takes a systemic view of the complete patient experience. Rather than begin with individual components of patient throughput, our experienced team begins with an analysis of key performance indicators (KPIs) that describe how well the overall throughput system functions. A few examples of such KPIs include length of stay for specific inpatient populations, as well as emergency department and surgical services; denials; variance days; diversion episodes and hours; patient placement; patient complaints; and occupancy.

Based upon analyses of the system-level KPIs, our team develops a priority list of patient throughput system components for examination. While conducting the quantitative and qualitative analyses of these components, the consultants work together to assure that optimizing system performance remains the overarching goal and not maximizing the performance of any one component at the cost of others. The use of diverse disciplines with varying perspectives helps assure the pursuit of opportunities for cross-functional improvement.

Our patient throughput team brings a variety of applicable skill sets and experience to the patient throughput challenges that hospitals face. The team includes nurses with direct operational and leadership experience in acute care nursing, emergency services, surgical services, and case management. Consultants experienced in diagnostic and therapeutic services and hospital hotel services join the team, as well. Consultants with extensive experience in all aspects of revenue cycle management play an integral role in the team. Analytic resources, with particular focus on statistical and queuing analyses, provide support to the team and add rigor to the findings.

Focus Area	Process Redesign	Leadership Support
Patient Access Inpatient Nursing Emergency Services Surgical Services Case Management Ancillary Services Hotel Services Patient Accounting	Care Planning Length of Stay Utilization Management Discharge Planning Ancillary Service Delivery Support Service Delivery Logistics Staffing Models	Key Performance Indicators Monitoring and Reporting Role Design and Redefinition Patient Throughput Team Development and Facilitation Mentoring IMA WebU™

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