St. Thomas hospital reengineers its daily bed huddle

ST. THOMAS, Ont. – St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital (STEGH) recently updated the format of its morning bed huddle. Until recently, the hospital was using a manual process where access and flow data was collected in an excel spreadsheet and documented on a white board.

Over the past six months, clinical teams reviewed the process in its entirety, taking into consideration people, process, and technology, and made changes to redesign the process using Smartsheets.

Adopting Smartsheet technology has allowed leaders to enter daily occupancy metrics, staffing levels, access and flow metrics, and other key data on either a computer or mobile. Daily metrics are now visible for all leaders through an interactive dashboard that is accessible on either device, at any time.

“The transition to the new workflow has been seamless, and leaders are very pleased with the outcome,” said Kat Jacobs, manager of Transforming Care.

Clinical managers no longer need to enter data into an excel spreadsheet, which was time-consuming and at times, redundant. Each leader now enters data into a survey, which is more efficient, streamlined, and intuitive.

Stage two of the project includes trending, tracking, and theming data to better predict outcomes and inform future changes.

“This initiative was truly driven by our leaders and Transforming Care Office. STEGH’s Lean culture, coupled with high levels of engagement, collaboration, critical thinking, and focusing on the needs of our patients was foundational to our success,” said Tina Oliveria, director of Medicine.

“This new functionality is scalable across the entire organization and will allow our hospital to leverage the technology in new and innovative ways,” added Monica Olanski (pictured), vice president of Patient Care Services and chief information officer.