Patient Flow Software Blog

Optimizing Inpatient Patient Flow: Strategies for 2025 and Beyond

Mary Cooper — Fri, 09 May 2025 16:47:40 GMT

Efficient inpatient patient flow is a foundational element of hospital operations. It encompasses the entire movement of patients within a healthcare facility—from admission to discharge—and includes every touchpoint along the care journey. In 2025 and beyond, optimizing patient flow isn’t just a matter of operational efficiency; it's critical to ensuring patient safety, quality of care, revenue growth, and overall patient satisfaction.

As healthcare systems navigate increasing demand and resource limitations, hospitals must adopt forward-looking strategies that combine data-driven insights, streamlined communication, and smart technology. Here are seven key strategies to enhance inpatient patient flow—alongside specific tools hospitals can use to make these strategies actionable.

ESSENTIAL BENCHMARKING STRATEGIES FOR PATIENT TRANSPORT MANAGERS

Mary Cooper — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 16:29:47 GMT

Patient Transport Managers are crucial in ensuring smooth patient flow within healthcare facilities.

Streamlining Patient Transportation: Leveraging the Power of Software for Optimal Efficiency

Mary Cooper — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 14:57:31 GMT

Introduction: In the ever-evolving landscape of healthcare, efficiency and patient care remain top priorities. One crucial aspect often overlooked is patient transportation within medical facilities. Traditional methods of coordinating patient transfers can be time-consuming and prone to errors. Enter Patient transportation software – a solution that's transforming the way healthcare institutions manage patient mobility. In this blog, we'll explore the best use of patient transportation software and how it can enhance hospital operations while prioritizing patient well-being.

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOUR PATIENT TRANSPORT OPERATIONS ARE DOING WELL? Part 2

Ron Gregg — Tue, 18 Sep 2018 18:51:29 GMT

PART 2 – THE POWER OF BENCHMARKING

In Part 1, we stated that the best thing patient transport technology can do is to demonstrate that your transport operations are performing as well as can be expected. However, sometimes the numbers show unexpected, but important, results. Here is an example.

Transport managers are interested in comparing their actual performance against some reasonable performance standard, what ARE we doing compared to what SHOULD we be doing?

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOUR PATIENT TRANSPORT OPERATIONS ARE DOING WELL?

Ron Gregg — Fri, 20 Oct 2017 22:40:33 GMT

One easy way to know if your patient transportation operations are functioning correctly is if you are not receiving any complaints from the customers. However, zero complaints may never have happened in any hospital anywhere.

Tips for Training New Staff on Software

Jo Anne Leonard — Fri, 20 May 2016 20:41:11 GMT

As a Manager, do you feel that you and your staff have been properly trained on software that your department uses on a daily basis? Ask yourself – if your initial training was done by the person being replaced, by a co-worker, or by reading a user manual in your spare time, do you feel ready to jump in and use the software? How about new staff coming into the department? Do you feel there is a system or training program in place that thoroughly teaches them how to use this vital software?

Why Are Transports Taking So Long

Jo Anne Leonard — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 01:28:18 GMT

How to Track & Decrease the Transport Timeframe

Have you ever wondered, “what is my staff actually doing up on the nursing units while they are supposed to be picking up a patient for transport?” Have you questioned, “why do my transporters have to wait so long for a nurse or nursing staff member to prepare the patient for transport, or why are we always having to wait for lift assistance? If you’ve asked yourself any of these questions and wondered how you could possibly track this process and the intermediate timeframes without actually shadowing the transporters, then you’ve come to the right place.

We’ll be discussing these common questions and answering one that you may not even have thought to ask: How can I decrease the transport timeframe at my hospital?
The challenges are that you only have so many transporters and the demand for them during certain hours can really put the strain on everyone: the transporters, the Diagnostic & Nursing staff, the patients, and you as the manager (note: even if you aren’t in a managerial role, this article is a good read for anyone involved with the time-consuming transport process).

Managing | Patient Flow | from the Emergency Department

Ron Gregg — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 17:55:00 GMT

A recent study of hospital CEOs¹ showed that financial challenges remain their biggest concern. Much of the concern relates to continuing systemic changes resulting from healthcare reform.
The financial benefits derived by the significant increase in insurance coverage of previously uninsured patients is potentially offset by reduced government payment levels under Medicare and Medicaid, pressures to move toward a value-based care model, and collection issues resulting from high deductible insurance plans.
These changing currents emphasize the essential need for hospitals to continually improve the efficiency of their operations. One increasingly important area of operations is the emergency department because of its growing role as the primary entry portal for inpatient treatment, the main source of revenue for most hospitals.
A RAND Corporation study² found that the combined effects of steady growth of ED visits and fewer inpatient beds have caused:

Challenges in Achieving Efficient Patient Placement

Ron Gregg — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 23:14:00 GMT

What Are They and How Can You Navigate Them?

Is setting standards and measuring your patient placement performance a top priority? If you

work in hospital administration, we bet (and hope!) your answer is a confident “Yes.”

As you know, the goal for efficient patient placement is to reduce or eliminate delays in transferring patients from clinical intake areas, such as the ED and PACU, to nursing unit beds, thus improving medical care (by avoiding extended stays in the ED beds or in the hall in a nursing unit) for the patients and freeing up needed beds in the ED.

But there are challenges that have to be overcome in order to meet this goal. First, there must be easy access to real-time operating data about patients and beds for clinical and bed access staffs throughout the process. Second, management must make decisions as to how to handle several difficult issues that arise during the process, and those decisions are better made with real-time data. And third, management must also find a way to accurately measure the performance of clinical and bed access staffs in completing their segments of the process.

A Brief Look at the Affordable Care Act and Patient Flow

Mary Cooper — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 16:36:00 GMT

The Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, is a law that, according to the Department of Health and Human Services: “Puts consumers back in charge of their health care… [and] gives the American people the stability and flexibility they need to make informed choices about their health.” Media coverage concerning the ACA has been focused on the effects for consumers, or patients. But, what about hospitals? How will the ACA effect health care providers?
The vision of Bernard Tyson, president and CEO of the Kaiser Permanente Health System, may help shed some light on these questions. According to Tyson, the current goal of health care providers, given the Affordable Care Act, is: