Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/694761
Admissions Discharges and Transfers (ADT) Regardless of length of stay, every hospital inpatient must be admitted, trans- ferred and discharged. These touch points carry a significant workload for nurses and care teams, particularly as hospitals increase their focus on patient satisfaction and care coordination. With visibility to patient flow activity — actual, pending and expected — ADT data empowers hospitals to plan ahead and better manage patient throughput . It also gives care teams the ability to adjust staffing based on patients' changing dynamics, patients' departure from a unit , patient flow and the staffing assign- ments for current and upcoming shifts. Most executives (70 percent) recognize that ADT data has a significant effect on quality improvement . And when it comes to costs, ADT data is a powerful tool: 67 percent of executives said it has a high impact on workforce cost contain- ment efforts. Despite their acknowledgment that ADT data affects the quality and cost of care, many organizations have yet to master this level of accuracy in staffing. Only 49 percent of executives said their hospitals consider ADT data when making staffing assignments. The vice president of patient care at the major Southwest academic health sys- tem advised that organizations trying to gain efficiency and bolster outcomes should base staffing decisions on the most timely information available. Also, nurses should have resources to gain an accurate understanding of admits, discharges and transfers. "There is a gap between nursing and other areas of healthcare organizations that needs to be closed," she said. "It will require all parties agreeing on the ultimate goal being high quality patient care — actually being patient-centric healthcare providers." Hospitals need the solutions that enable them to keep pace with the fluidity of patient flow and adjust their staffing with as much ease and reliability as possi- ble. An integrated staffing solution that pulls in ADT and census data — allowing hospitals to adjust staffing every four hours throughout a coverage period — can help ensure optimal nurse-to-patient matching. "There is a gap between nursing and other areas of healthcare organizations that needs to be closed. It will require all parties agreeing on the ultimate goal being high quality patient care — actually being patient-centric healthcare providers."