Streamlining Coordinated Healthcare Service Delivery for Institutions
In the ever-evolving landscape of healthcare, technology is playing an increasingly significant role. Two notable examples can be found in Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, both of which have implemented Mission Control Command Centers to streamline operations and improve patient care.
OHSU launched its command center in 2017, equipped with 55-inch ultrahigh-resolution Planar displays that form video walls. These displays provide real-time, holistic pictures of what's happening in patient rooms across the healthcare system. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the command center proved particularly valuable, offering real-time information about negative pressure rooms (also known as airborne infection isolation rooms) to hospital executives.
The command center has been instrumental in helping OHSU manage its resources effectively. For instance, it was used to assess how much bed capacity the organization would gain if it halted elective surgeries, and its estimate was "spot on". Moreover, OHSU was able to place more than 500 patients with its partner locations in the first year of operations, increasing access to the academic health center for patients throughout Oregon.
Virginia Mason Franciscan Health followed suit, unveiling its Mission Control Command Center in June 2019. The center has been instrumental in the pandemic response, with its analytics engine, developed by GE Healthcare, serving from the cloud over a private network connection to the hospital using Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute.
The command center has expedited 464 exams, created tertiary hospital capacity, prevented 90 patients from having to travel to an outlying facility, identified and addressed critical patient safety concerns in real time on 739 occasions, converted 256 patients from observation to inpatient status, and mitigated 581 patient surgeries and procedures.
The success of these command centers is not limited to these two institutions. The Johns Hopkins Hospital, which deployed a command center in 2016, achieved a full return on investment within three years. Since then, the hospital has fielded requests from hundreds of other organizations to visit and learn more about the technology.
Hospital command centers are a relatively new solution, but they are rapidly gaining traction as organizations recognise their value. In fact, OHSU expects Virginia Mason Franciscan Health to achieve a fourfold return on investment on its command center.
Before the command centers, OHSU's senior associate chief medical officer for capacity management and patient flow, Dr. Matthias Merkel, stated that they used to manage patient numbers manually. Now, with the command center, they can make data-driven decisions to improve practices across the Washington state healthcare system.
As healthcare systems continue to grapple with the challenges posed by pandemics and increasing patient demands, it's clear that solutions like the Mission Control Command Center will play a crucial role in the future of healthcare.
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