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ER Introduces New Care Chairs

In support of Southlake’s 2008 corporate goal to reduce wait times and improve patient flow throughout the organization, the Emergency Department recently introduced a new, innovative “chair model” to better serve a portion of its patient population. Referred to as the Yellow Zone—chosen as a patient-friendly reference—12 reclining chairs and 4 stretchers are located in the former Clinical Decision Unit (CDU) of the Emergency Department, with 10 comfortable chairs located outside the Yellow Zone to serve as the zone’s waiting area.

“When the majority of stretchers are taken by patients who are waiting to be admitted to an in-patient bed, patient flow within the Emergency Department is significantly impacted,” says Dr. Steven Cluff, Medical Director, Emergency Department. “The purpose of the new chair model is to provide additional assessment and treatment space within the department and, as a result, reduce wait times for those patients who require urgent care but do not require hospital admission.”

Currently, as patients arrive in the Emergency Department, they are triaged into one of five categories or levels depending on the severity of their symptoms or injuries. The most critically ill—Level 1 and the majority of Level 2—patients are assigned to stretchers while, in the majority of cases, Level 4 and 5 patients are seen through Fast Track on a first-come, first-serve basis. The remaining patients, Level 3 and some Level 2, are required to wait in the department’s main waiting room until such time as a stretcher becomes available. At times, this can be a lengthy, crowded, and uncomfortable experience and a major frustration for our patients and their family members. The new chair model will enable the healthcare team to direct these patients to a comfortable chair in the Yellow Zone where they will be assessed and steps taken to initiate their care.

Since opening on July 2, a maximum of 56 patients have been seen in a 24-hour period compared to the 26 patients in that same 24-hour period under the CDU model. The ability to move patients to the Yellow Zone from the main waiting room has allowed for more timely care with wait times for Level 2 and 3 patients reduced from an average of 6.5 hours in the CDU model to an average of 3.5 hours using the Yellow Zone model. There has been a decrease in the volume of patients in the waiting room as well as a reduction in the number of patients who have left without being seen. The “chair model” is just one of the many hospital-wide initiatives which will be introduced in the coming months to improve patient flow through the Emergency Department and patients’ overall hospital experience.

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