INCOMING!--A web tracking application for PACU and post-surgical patients

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Health Informatics
• Hospital Operations

Background:

• Hospital capacity constraints necessitate improved efficiency.
• Streamlining patient flow from the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) to surgical wards can reduce PACU workload.
• Integrated real-time systems can facilitate smoother patient discharge processes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate INCOMING!, a web-based platform designed to optimize patient flow from the operating room to the PACU.
• To assess the impact of INCOMING! on PACU length of stay and clinical unit manager workload.
• To determine the effectiveness of an automated paging system in facilitating patient transfers.

Main Methods:

• Development of INCOMING!, a web-based platform integrating patient data for real-time PACU monitoring.
• Implementation of an automated paging system to alert clinical unit managers for patient retrieval from the PACU.
• Comparison of mean PACU length of stay between an intervention group (general surgery with INCOMING!) and control groups (general surgery without INCOMING!, orthopedic surgery).

Main Results:

• The INCOMING! system successfully gathered data and generated automated alerts.
• A significant difference in PACU length of stay was observed between the orthopedic surgery control group and the general surgery intervention group (235 min vs. 185 min, P = 0.001).
• The mean PACU length of stay decreased by 26 min in the INCOMING! intervention group, while it increased by 28 min in the general surgery control group (P = 0.27).

Conclusions:

• Pilot implementation confirmed INCOMING!'s capability for data integration and automated notifications.
• The system demonstrated potential for significant efficiency gains with minimal cost.
• Expansion of INCOMING! to all PACU patients and post-PACU care units is planned.