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ASCENSION’S EMERGENCY AND URGENT CARE SERVICES TEAM DELIVERS CARE IN THE MOMENTS THAT MATTER

Over the past year, Ascension’s efforts to improve the operations of all its Emergency Departments (EDs) and urgent care centers, led by Allison Bollinger, MD, FAAEM, Vice President, Emergency and Urgent Care Services, Ascension, have led to tremendous strides in transforming care for the patients we serve.

“The COVID-19 pandemic put a strain on healthcare systems across the country, especially on Emergency Departments and urgent cares,” Dr. Bollinger said. “Despite the challenges the pandemic presented us, our ED teams across Ascension have remained unwavering in their commitment and focus to enhance how we deliver care.”

The dedication of those ED and urgent care teams has brought about positive improvements across four key focus areas set by the National ED Optimization Team:

• Quality and consistency. • Throughput and efficiency. • Patient and clinician engagement. • Appropriate utilization of care.

HIGH-QUALITY, CONSISTENT CARE

Providing prompt care in the ED is essential. One strategy to improve access is to reduce the number of minutes from a patient’s arrival in the ED to their assessment by a provider. Reducing door-to-provider time is a three-year clinical priority goal for Ascension. Since the goal’s introduction in fiscal year 2022, many Ministry Markets have seen significant improvements in this quality measure. For example, Ascension Providence in Mobile, Alabama, has reduced these times by nearly 50% compared with last year.

This achievement can be attributed to educating all clinicians on how times are calculated; new processes for screening patients; and communications training, with specific emphasis on scripting around front-end processes and using white boards so staff and patients are aware of where they are in the process of being assessed and treated.

“By having our ED patients assessed by clinicians sooner, we can not only improve the patient experience but optimize outcomes,” Dr. Bollinger said. “We look forward to further collaborating across our markets to share best practices and to continue to build upon their great work.”

DATA-DRIVEN STRATEGIES

To further help deliver prompt service, the National ED Team has worked with the Ascension Data Science Institute (ADSI)

Dr. Howard Chang, an emergency medicine specialist at Ascension Via Christi hospitals in Wichita, Kansas, takes a moment to connect with his patient. Dr. Chang piloted the Commit to Sit initiative, which encourages clinicians to meet patients at eye level while talking with them.

and Ascension Data Delivery and Governance (ADDG) teams to bring ED data together in one place and make it usable and actionable by developing an ED Metrics Dashboard. The new dashboard houses key data to empower leaders and clinical teams to drive improvements around quality, throughput, engagement and consistency. By synthesizing multiple ED data sources into one platform, this enhanced reporting ensures our ED data remains accurate and reliable.

“This was a massive undertaking by ADDG and ADSI,” said Gary Ichkowsky, MMR, Director of Operations, Emergency Services, Ascension. “Thanks to their dedication and teamwork, we are now able to provide a great resource to our ED personnel that will enable them to get timely data across our Ministry Markets.”

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RIGHT CARE, RIGHT TIME

To help support the work of our ED team, Ascension launched a consumer marketing campaign called “Right Place, Right Time” earlier this year. The goal of the campaign is to promote ease of navigation for emergency care, urgent care and walk-in care, primary care, and virtual care — reminding patients where to go, and when, based on their medical concern or need.

The campaign’s creative elements were designed to support navigation of care by proximity, availability, accessibility and acuity — directing people to the right front door without delaying needed care.

“Our Mission calls us to help our patients navigate the care they need, whether it be emergency, immediate, episodic or follow-up care,” said Richard Fogel, MD, FACC, FHRS, Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer, Ascension, who contributed to the creation of the campaign. “We want the communities we serve to choose Ascension because they can find all the care they need, doctors who listen, and convenience and care that’s connected.”

Data from the dashboard will also inform our ED team’s future strategies and identify additional areas for improvement at the System and market level.

IT STARTS WITH COMPASSION

At the heart of our EDs team’s work is their compassion for those we serve. For many patients, the ED can be a stressful, vulnerable place. To help make patients feel more at ease, Ascension recently kicked off an initiative called Commit to Sit.

Howard Chang, MD, an emergency medicine specialist who serves Ascension Via Christi’s Wichita, Kansas, hospitals, who piloted the initiative, suggested a simple step that all ED clinicians, nurses and bedside caregivers could take to better connect with their patients and listen with compassion: ensuring that whenever possible, clinicians take a seat and communicate with patients at an eye-to-eye level.

“Taking a seat when talking with patients is not a new concept,” Dr. Chang said. “In fact, it’s something we are all taught in medical school. With this initiative, we are simply reinforcing what we already know and setting an expectation that everyone will employ this approach of getting back to the basics of a positive doctor-patient relationship.”

The Commit to Sit initiative has been adopted by many markets as a key tool to improve how we listen to patients.

CARE DURING THE MOMENTS THAT MATTER

Our ED teams also play an important role in getting patients to the right place of care. The ED is often the front door to our ministry. Many patients call EDs directly seeking medical advice only to be told that it cannot be provided over the phone. An ED navigation hotline was developed with the Ascension Connect Contact Center and Ascension Medical Group to help assist patients in need of care.

“We want to ensure that our patients receive the right care during moments that matter,” Dr. Bollinger said. “By offering a patient-centered navigation hotline, we can provide patients with a direct, personalized connection to a team of highly trained experts to assist them with their care.”

The ED navigation hotline is currently available in Austin and Waco, Texas; Mobile, Alabama; and Pensacola, Florida. Through this hotline concept, together these ministries have served more than 9,000 patients who were uncertain where to seek care and needed the advice of a medical professional.