Creating Your Ideal Hospital Experience
We're a national leader in creating better hospital stays for you
When you have to go to the hospital, you expect you'll have a bed. But several years ago, that wasn't always the case. Hospitals around the country became so crowded, there wasn't always a room available. Not only that, emergency rooms had long waiting lines, ambulances were being rerouted (or "diverted") to other hospitals, and operating rooms were not always available.
Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network (LVHHN) made a commitment to change all that. Through a hospital-wide effort (called Growing Organizational Capacity), our colleagues improved the quality of a person's hospital experience, from arrival to discharge.
Today, our bed management process is a national leader. A sophisticated "patient logistics" department uses an electronic display to track all patient beds in real time, and an innovative "Discharge Bed Swat Team" ensures beds are available as soon as possible. The results are remarkable:
- Average length of stay for patients in the Emergency Room is reduced by nearly an hour.
- Emergency Room patients are seen 30 minutes faster, and patient satisfaction is among the nation's best.
- Average bed turnaround time, once 210 minutes, is now 62 minutes.
- 150 percent more patients are transferred to the hospital, and ambulance diversions are reduced.
The quality of our bed management system is
recognized coast to coast. It's attracted attention from hospitals nationally and internationally, and from government agencies like the Department of Homeland Security, Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). If a large-scale disaster happens, we now have the potential to quickly let government agencies know how many hospital beds are available. We've also earned an
American Business Award for our Growing Organizational Capacity project.
This page last updated 2/12/08 04:08 PM
