Creating sustained improvements in patient access and flow: experiences from three Ontario healthcare institutions

Ensuring that patients receive timely, high-quality healthcare is the highest priority of Ontario's hospitals, physicians and nurses. Given that the emergency department (ED) is often the "front door" to our healthcare system, developing approaches to improve access and flow in the ED is important - made more challenging by rising patient demand and acuity. Long-standing efforts to improve the ED system have outlined promising approaches and pushed access and flow up the priority list. Recently, in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC), several Ontario hospitals participated in an intensive and sustained effort to improve access and flow, with promising results. Participants in these efforts described the initiatives as transformational, and the results have been promising and sustained. This article chronicles the efforts of three hospitals to enable other hospitals, physicians and nurses to learn from these experiences and gain confidence that a similar impact can be achieved in their facilities. Specifically, it discusses the following: The three pillars of sustainable transformation. Hospital case studies. St. Joseph's Health Centre (SJHC), Toronto. London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) - University Hospital. University Health Network (UHN) - Toronto General and Toronto Western. Advice for other hospitals