McKesson and the Emergency Nurses Association have launched the ED
Benchmarks Collaborative. This innovative service, designed to enhance
ED performance improvement efforts, is now available to hospitals who
want to improve their emergency departments.
The project was the joint initiative of the Emergency Nurses Association
(ENA) and McKesson. It is a web-based subscription service that allows
hospital leaders to view trends and compare their emergency department
(ED) performance with similar organizations around the country. The
service also helps hospitals improve capacity management and drive
positive clinical and financial outcomes.
The performance of EDs is becoming a greater concern across America, as
these departments are more vulnerable to financial loss and the number
of ED patient visits is expected to rise as the health care reform law
is implemented. Many hospitals have been collecting ED performance data
for their own hospitals, but the ED Benchmarks Collaborative (EDBC) will
give hospitals a way to conduct national or regional hospital
comparisons, targeted organizational evaluations, and sharing of best
practices.
"With health reform, we're being asked to streamline the patient care
process and improve safety as well as quality at the same time," said
Diane Gurney, RN, president of ENA. "We need to rely on business
intelligence to drive this new approach to healthcare."
Using the EDBC online dashboard, participating hospitals will be able to
submit data and access internal and national trends on ten key
performance indicators in two categories: throughput and productivity.
Also available will be supporting data and subsequent root-cause
analysis that is behind each indicator on the dashboard, so subscribers
can utilize data for meaningful action towards performance improvement.
"Pediatric EDs present unique challenges that are best solved by
learning from comparable providers," said Deena Brecher, RN, ENA board
member and pediatric nurse at Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in
Wilmington, Del.
"Comparing metrics and outcomes with other pediatric facilities will
enable us to share knowledge and take actions that will help improve the
quality of care that we deliver to our patients."
The EDBC also helps hospitals tackle the growing challenge of improving
capacity management, which enhances patient satisfaction and care. The
average ED wait time is four hours and seven minutes, and is expected to
increase as newly-insured Americans begin to utilize healthcare
facilities. According to Press Ganey's 2010 Emergency Department Pulse
Report, 21 percent of all hospitals report being at capacity in their
emergency departments, while 17% report routinely exceeding capacity
levels.
According to the ENA, the insight gained from EDBC can also help
organizations meet Joint Commission stipulations and meaningful use
requirements associated with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
"Emergency department directors are accustomed to dealing with the
crises that are part of delivering emergency care on a daily basis,"
said Tina Foster, RN, vice president of benchmarking solutions, McKesson
Provider Technologies. "With the ED Benchmarks Collaborative, they
finally can analyze their performance strategically. It's a new
perspective that provides the enterprise intelligence needed to achieve
new and improved levels of efficiency and care quality across the
country."