White Paper – Discharge Barriers Escalation (Radiology): Easy Access to Information and EHR Messaging Platform Reduce Discharge Delays
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Discharge delays lead to conditions —risk of infections and falls, patient depression, anxiety, etc. — that negatively impact the quality of care and patient safety. The Patient Flow Executive Committee at UMass Memorial Health recognized that discharge delays were preventing the providers from meeting its True North goals for patient care, especially those related to patient flow and bed availability. The Avoidable Bed Day Report distributed by Clinical Case Management identifies avoidable bed delays by type: Some delays could not be controlled by UMass Memorial Health staff (e.g., bed availability at other facilities, insurance-related authorization delays, guardianship affirmation). But others could be addressed, with delays in service from Radiology chief among them. “Prior to the pandemic and then throughout the pandemic, we were seeing an increase in our patient census and the acuity level of our patients, with more patients filling every bed and not having bed availability; this leads to an increase in the length of stay,” says Kevin Reynolds, Radiology Technologist and Senior Clinical Quality Manager. An improvement project team was formed to explore and address the high number of Radiology-related delays. The Discharge Barriers Escalation (Radiology) team grew to a multifunctional group that included hospitalists and staff from Radiology services, including radiologists and technologists, from campuses across UMass Memorial Medical Center (UMMMC), which is the academic Level I trauma medical center of UMass Memorial Health and affiliated with UMass Chan Medical School.
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