Healthcare organizations have a lot to do-develop patient care, build delivery networks, train and attract clinicians, and adapt to changes in reimbursement-to name a few. How does the organization assess whether patient transportation should be a priority?
Extract the signal of the problem from the noise
Healthcare organizations receive patient feedback in various ways. Scanning this feedback may reveal insights about the emissions or facility transfer process, which may include comments about the transportation process.
A list of potential traffic signals to and from to help prioritize:
- Payer profile data: Since 1965, non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) has been a covered benefit of Medicaid. A large proportion of Medicaid patients indicated priority.
- Patient demographics: An aging population is less likely to drive or take public transportation.
- Patient experience feedback: The patient’s comments on the discharge or facility transfer process may include comments on the transportation process.
- Patient safety incident reporting: Incidents or near misses can be categorized in some way to determine whether the transportation workflow caused the incident or can prevent it.
- Transportation provider expenditures: Supply chain or financial reports (or lack of reports) can indicate utilization and facility budget expenditures related to patient transportation.
- Internal bottlenecks: Indicators of patient length of stay or delay in discharge may indicate how transportation is hindering the team.
After evaluating the signal, the next step is to see if other organizations plan to solve the traffic problem. Corporate performance improvement, Lean/Six Sigma or dwell time planning is a good starting point. The teams supporting these initiatives may see traffic as the root cause, and may be currently working to resolve this issue.An alliance of transportation and clinical stakeholders is the best way
Advance it as an organizational priority.
Although every healthcare organization is unique—income, patient mix, geographic location—the conclusions may be the same. Patients cannot access healthcare services because they do not have a ride, and when patients do not ride home, the medical system will encounter bottlenecks.
use Establish a transportation plan to help the most vulnerable people in healthcare.
