Patient Flow Software Blog

How to Avoid Patient Transportation Issues Before They Occur

Posted by Mary Cooper on Fri, Jun 22, 2012 @ 12:30 PM

patient transportation

A True Life Look at Patient Flow Challenges

When the transporter arrived to take Jo Anne’s mother down to X-Ray, she hardly expected him to bring a stretcher, deposit it in front of the elderly woman’s bed and request that she get out of bed and onto the stretcher by herself. There are reasons some patients wear “fall risk” precautionary wristbands and if Jo Anne had not been there to assist her mom onto the stretcher, that precaution could have become a reality.

Unfortunately, this was just the beginning of Jo Anne’s troubles with the patient transport process. When Jo Anne’s mother was brought back to her room on a stretcher, the 2 transporters proceeded to park it outside of her door and she was given the instructions to go ahead and “get back to bed.” Frustrated, Jo Anne asked an administrator, who was making PR rounds, if she could speak with someone from the transport department, but no one ever showed up. Now, anyone even slightly familiar with hospital protocol or the basics of patient transportation will realize that this is not ideal, or even acceptable, transporter behavior.

But, how can hospitals train staff in a way that prevents these types of transporter missteps? After the initial training process, is there really anything hospitals can do to ensure that each and every patient is transported with care and efficiency? Jo Anne Leonard, the V.P. of Client Services at PFS and the unfortunate lead of that last true tale, believes there is.

5 Tips for Avoiding Transporting Issues
by JoAnne Leonard

  1. Ensure staff is trained in customer relations. Transporters should not just be hired to push a wheelchair or maneuver a stretcher; they should also be trained to interact with patients. Examples of a few interactions are: Transporters should explain where they are taking the patient, and politely converse with the patient. Direct the family to the appropriate waiting room. Ask the patient and family if they can provide assistance with anything before leaving.

  2. Make sure staff can assess the patient’s basic condition. Inadequate staff training can be disastrous for a patient. Patient safety is a must! Whether the transporter speaks directly to the patient’s nurse or not, they should review the patient’s wristbands and check for pertinent postings outside the room. These may contain anything from fall precautions to isolation. Sometimes it just may be taking some extra care with the elderly or young, it will only help the patient if the transporter is more aware of the patient's physical condition.

  3. Shadow transporting staff. Earlier in my hospital career, I worked as a manager in several hospitals and my team of dispatchers and supervisors, and myself, would take turns in walking the floors and shadowing the transporters. This way we could assess whether the transporter was doing the job correctly, handling the patient appropriately, and following protocol. Once trained, staff should not need to be constantly reminded of how they are to perform their job. By shadowing transporters, hospital management is able to see who is fulfilling job’s requirements and who may need to be retrained, reassessed, or counseled.

  4. Immediately address transporting concerns and follow through to ensure that the patient is satisfied. As diligent as hospital management can be, there will still be the occasional slip up, but when this happens it should not be ignored. During my time with my mother in the hospital, it would have helped resolved the issue if the administrator that stopped by would have come back to make sure someone from the patient transport department had come to speak with me.

  5. Successful patient transportation depends on information availability and effective inter-departmental communication. Real-time Information about patients, their schedules, and delays in the transport process is crucial to patient safety and satisfaction and the efficient delivery of care. Computer based patient transport software can display that information to all relevant nursing units and diagnostic areas. I used such a software system at my last hospital and can't imagine going back to transporting patients without that kind of support.

If you would like to learn more about patient transportation software take a look around our website for some integrated solutions, or contact us.

Topics: patient flow, patient transportation, patient transportation software, patient flow software