Hospital Capacity Command Centers: A Benchmarking Survey on an Emerging Mechanism to Manage Patient Flow

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Health Systems Engineering
• Operations Research in Healthcare

Background:

• Delayed patient throughput due to hospital capacity constraints impacts safety, quality, and finances.
• Capacity Command Centers (CCCs) are emerging as a solution, centralizing teams and data for proactive patient flow management.
• Limited peer-reviewed literature exists on CCCs, necessitating research to guide health system leaders.

Purpose of the Study:

• To survey US health systems to benchmark the motivations, design, and key performance indicators of CCCs.
• To provide initial insights into the implementation and performance of CCCs for health system leaders.
• To address the gap in existing literature regarding CCCs.

Main Methods:

• An online survey was administered to capacity leaders at 38 US health systems within a hospital capacity management consortium.
• Responses were collected via a targeted email campaign.
• Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the survey data.

Main Results:

• A high response rate of 81.6% (31/38) was achieved, with 25 respondents operating CCCs.
• The primary motivation for CCC implementation was reducing emergency department (ED) boarding.
• Bed management and interhospital transfers were the most common CCC functions, with all reporting positive financial return on investment (ROI).

Conclusions:

• This survey provides crucial aggregate data for health system leaders to plan and benchmark CCCs.
• Identified motivations, functions, and performance indicators offer practical insights for CCC implementation.
• Future research is proposed to further explore the impact and optimization of CCCs.