The Challenge
A regional health authority was confronting serious inefficiencies in mental health patient flow across six hospitals. Patients presenting in crisis were frequently held in emergency departments for extended periods, sometimes in hallways or spaces entirely unsuited to their needs, because the system had no unified mechanism for matching patients to appropriate inpatient beds.
Each hospital managed its own bed inventory in isolation, with little visibility into what was available elsewhere in the region. The result was fragmented capacity management, inconsistent bed utilization, and significant funding loss caused by patients being placed in the wrong level of care.
The Approach
A region-wide analysis mapped the full patient journey from emergency department presentation through to inpatient admission across all six sites. The improvement initiative focused on:
- Designing future-state processes to reduce variation and standardize intake and transfer decisions across all hospitals
- Improving care handoffs and communication protocols between hospital sites
- Developing a simple shared digital tool using accessible technology, giving all six hospitals real-time visibility into available mental health beds across the region
- Deliberately designing the solution to be low-cost, easy to adopt, and sustainable without significant technical infrastructure
The Outcome
The standardized process and shared visibility system transformed regional patient flow. Emergency department overcrowding decreased, transfers became faster and more clinically appropriate, and regional bed utilization increased to 93 percent.
Collaboration between hospitals improved meaningfully, and patients experienced faster, more dignified access to the right level of care. The work was later published in a quality improvement journal as a leading practice.