Hospitals work together to focus on patient flow

Improving patient flow is a priority for every hospital in our region. Last week, a special regional working group dropped by Kingston General Hospital to take a closer look at how we are managing and improving patient flow.

This working group is made up of representatives from the South East Local Health Integration Network (SE LHIN), the Community Care Access Centre (CCAC), and all seven hospitals in the region. Over the next few months, the group will be visiting every hospital in the LHIN with the goal of fostering peer-to-peer learning and to identify system-wide best practices.

During their visit to KGH, the group toured our Emergency Department, many of our inpatient units, and the admitting and bed allocation department. They also attended our inter-departmental Get Out Of Gridlock (GOOG) meeting, and met with our senior leadership team to discuss such challenges as the number of patients in KGH designated as needing an Alternate Level of Care (ALC).

“The goal is to come up with shared policies and process to support patients as they move into, within, and from KGH,” says Cynthia Phillips, Interim Director, Professional Practice Allied Health. “Everyone is excited to work together because improving patient flow will require regional-wide cooperation. It’s not a challenge any one organization can tackle by itself.”

At every stop, the working group looks for best practices to share and also gives feedback on any opportunities for improvement they see. Once the group is done all of its visits, it will report back to the regional body called SECHEF in September. It’s made up of executives from all of the hospitals and the CCAC in our LHIN.