How Boosting ED Efficiency Turbo-charges Metrics

• Door-to-doctor time decreased
  from 92 to 36 minutes
• Door-to-bed time decreased from
  65 minutes to 23 minutes
• Patients leaving without being seen
  decreased from 7.1% to 1.06%
• Patient satisfaction increased from
  the 1st percentile to the 95th
  percentile
• Overall length of stay decreased
  by 20%

With the huge increase in volume due to the consolidation, which was completed in November 2009, sometimes the ED still gets backed up, but it's rare, says Jarvis.

"The biggest challenge has been keeping it up," she admits. "The system works, but it's a big change from the way people are used to working."

Though the changes put the patient at the center of the process, it causes patients to be moved a lot, making the transition a little more chaotic for staffers at first, she says.

"It's easy for staff and docs to slide back into the old habits, so we really have to stay on them," she says. "We have to make this the new normal. The doctors are working as hard or harder than ever, and they like being busy, but they agree things work better."