Northeast Georgia Health System - Emergency Department

Modeling Triage for Improved Patient and Caregiver Flow

To address increased emergency room visits, HGA and NGHS developed an operational plan to meet current and future market expectations. We completed a post-occupancy analysis with to meet the following guiding principles:

• ESTABLISH MODEL OF OPERATION BASED BALANCED PROVIDER WORKLOADS
• LIMIT PHYSICAL CHANGES UNTIL NEW VOLUME THRESHOLD MET – MUST ACCOMMODATE SEVERAL FLOW MODELS
• PILOT AND EVALUATE OPTIONS – USE DATA TO SET PILOTING PARAMETERS

Using Value Stream Analysis, we monitored and recorded patient flow to create two track models to prove patient and caregiver flows, detailing the advantages of “Nurse in Triage” vs. advantages of “Provider in Triage.” These models allowed NGHS to make informed choices for operational improvements.