RapidView Provides Real-Time Snapshots of the Facility; Improves Patient Access

RapidView also makes the ADT Center staff members' job a lot easier. With a scan of the screens, they can determine whether the hospital has any open beds, when beds will be open, whether a patient has an infectious disease, along with other patient information.

"The key to RapidView is that it is correct and it is timely," says Hudson-Jinks. "Because the variables keep changing minute to minute, your information cannot be 20 minutes old."

According to Hudson-Jinks, this access to timely information allowed Tufts to lower length of stay, treat more patients in 2009, and turn away fewer patients in acute need from surrounding communities.

Improving patient quality
"The thing that makes this system different is that it's not just a bed tracking system. It has clinical features," Culkins Bair says.

RapidView allows the medical staff to get an idea of the patient's case at a glance. For example, if the patient is on fall precaution, deidentified text appears on the screen that communicates this information to healthcare professionals. Healthcare professionals see this information on their floor's screen.

Icons also help healthcare professionals track where a patient is in the facility. If a patient is in radiology for testing, an icon appears on his or her room, and a timer starts. This way, staff members can tell family, visitors, and other healthcare professionals where the patient is and when he or she is expected to return.

There are also icons that appear to tell healthcare professionals that lab work has come back. A trained observer can even tell whether the results were normal or abnormal based on the icon's color.

In addition, RapidView has changed the way Tufts structures its ADT process. An RN works alongside an ADT Center staff member to ensure that patients are placed properly on the front end according to their condition.

Saving time
The RapidView system is also saving the Tufts staff a lot of time. The ADT Center staff no longer needs to make as many calls to each floor asking how many discharges are expected for the day or how many beds are available.

"Before, we relied on too many people to call and tell us information, whereas now, the information comes to us," says Hudson-Jinks.

As a result, the hospital's processes are streamlined and that in turn allows staff members to handle high volumes with relative ease.