Patient Flow Software Blog

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.

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

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.

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? 

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.

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?                                                  

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).