Principles of capacity management, applied in the mental health context.

Conclusion Improving patient flow is multifactorial. Increased attendances in public EDs by people with mental health problems and the lengthening boarding in the ED affect the overall ED throughput. Key strategies to improve mental health consumer flow need to focus on engagement, leadership, embedding fundamentals, managing and target setting.What is known about the topic? Improving patient flow in the acute sector is an emerging topic in the health literature in response to increasing pressures of access block in EDs.What does this paper add? This paper describes the application of a suite of patient flow improvement principles that were applied in the mental health setting that significantly reduced the waiting time for consumers in two EDs.What are the implications for practitioners? No single improvement will reduce access block in the ED for mental health consumers. Reductions in waiting times require a concerted, multifocal approach across all components of the acute mental health journey. PMID: 28637582 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Australian Health Review - Category: Hospital Management Authors: Tags: Aust Health Rev Source Type: research