maggie Pemberton
universty of arizona global campus
Introduction to Health Informatics
Instructor: Samuel Bufkin
case study 1
Michael H. Kennedy, Kim Crickmore,aand Lynne MilesaManaging the flow of patients and bed capacity is challengingfor any hospital, especially for unscheduled admissions. ForZed Medical Center, a large regional referral center in theSouth and a member of the University Health System Consor-tium, the challenge is even greater. As the flagship hospital fora multihospital system with more than 750 licensed beds anda Level 1 trauma center with 50-plus trauma beds, approxi-mately 70% of annual admissions are unscheduled.The vice-president for Operations has a PhD in Nursing, isa fellow of the Advisory Board Company, and has more than20 years’tenure at Zed Medical Center. Three of the tendepartments under her purview (Patient Care Coordinator,Bed Control, and Patient Transfers) are directly engaged inmanaging patient flow and bed capacity. The division is alsoresponsible for system-wide care coordination for patientsdischarged to skilled nursing facilities, to home health, andto home without planned service delivery. Current opera-tional goals include (1) decreasing the current length of stayby 0.3 days from 5.7 to 5.4 days and (2)“ED to 3”—a sloganincorporating the intention to place patients from the emer-gency department into a bed within 3 hours of the decision toadmit. With the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Servicesclarifying penalties for readmissions within 30 days, ZedMedical Center has been preparing to effectively managereadmissions based on CMS guidelines.The eight staff members assigned to Patient Transferscoordinate with hospitals within the region wanting to trans-fer patients to Zed Medical Center. They take calls, connectoutside transfers with accepting physicians, and arrangetransport. The accepting physician determines the patient’sneeded level of care, special care needs (e.g., diabetic), andthe time frame for transfer. The Patient Transfer Departmentuses the TransferCenter module of TeleTracking (www.teletracking.com) to manage the transfer and admission ofpatients. After a patient has been accepted for admission bythe admitting physician, Bed Control makes the bed assign-ment. The staff members of Bed Control assign incomingpatients to specific beds once the Patient Placement Facilita-tors from the Patient Care Coordinator Department identifythe nursing unit to which patients should be assigned. Thisdetermination is made based on the level of care required,physician preferences in choice of nursing unit, and the scopeof care supported by the nursing units. The Bed ControlDepartment uses the Capacity Management Suite of the Tele-Tracking software. The PreAdmitTracking module keepstrack of bed status with an“electronic bedboard,”which pro-vides a graphical user interface through which plannedadmissions, transfers, and discharges can be annotated. Thestatus of a bed freed by patient discharge for which a cleaningrequest has been made is also noted (dirty, in progress, orcleaned). The Bed Tracking module uses the medical center’spaging network to notify the environmental services staff of acleaning request and the unit director of the unit that a patientis incoming. The TransportTracking module automaticallydispatches patient transport requests via phone or pager. Chapter 7:
How are patients prioritized for bed assignment?
Describe some of the advantages and disadvantages of this new software; include the stated organizational goals in your answer.
Discuss how this software might share data with other institutional applications to provide a dashboard view of census-type activity.
case study 2 Mrs. Smith is 82 years old and is diagnosed with hyperten-sion, diabetes, and congestive heart failure. Her two childrenlive in California, whereas she lives in North Carolina in asmall family home on 10 acres of land in the Blue RidgeMountains. Mrs. Smith has been in the hospital four timesin the last year because of congestive heart failure. As her eye-sight and mobility get worse with age, she has found it a chal-lenge to stay on her medical plan and to do her shopping forthe right foods she knows she should be eating. Mrs. Smith’shealth plan, Purple Cross of North Carolina, assigned a nursecase manager to address her situation. Purple Cross provideda digital scale and a remote monitoring device that recordMrs. Smith’s condition every day by uploading her weightand transmitting the answers to a series of questions on atouch screen kiosk. The case manager also coordinated deliv-ery of Meals on Wheels, providing low-sodium, diabetic-compliant dinners to Mrs. Smith on an ongoing basis. Thecase manager calls Mrs. Smith twice a week, taking the timeto educate her about her medications, her activities, and thedisease-specific elements that will keep her healthy and outof the hospital. When the case manager identifies that Mrs.Smith can no longer organize her daily medications, a digitalmedication dispenser will be provided that will keep her onher medication regimen. The medication dispenser will bepreloaded with Mrs. Smith’s medications and will issue a sub-tle doorbell tone when it is time to take her medicines. Withthe combination of remote and real-time (telephonic) supportpersons and tech
Which components are critical to Mrs. Smith staying safely in her home?
Describe whether Mrs. Smith’s regimen might be augmented using telehealth applications.nologies, Mrs. Smith is able to remain in herhome and avoid further inpatient admissions .
Must be three to four double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Writing CenterLinks to an external site. ’s APA StyleLinks to an external site. resource for each case study.
Must include a separate title page for each case study with the following:
Title of paper including the chapter number and case study title
Student’s name
Course name and number
Instructor’s name
Date submitted
For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Microsoft WordLinks to an external site. .
Must utilize academic voice. See the Academic VoiceLinks to an external site. resource for additional guidance.
Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.
For assistance on writing Introductions & ConclusionsLinks to an external site. as well as Writing a Thesis StatementLinks to an external site. , refer to the Writing Center resources.
Must use at least two scholarly or credible sources in addition to the course text.
The Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible SourcesLinks to an external site. table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
To assist you in completing the research required for this assignment, view this Quick and Easy Library ResearchLinks to an external site. tutorial, which introduces the University of Arizona Global Campus Library and the research process, and provides some library search tips.
Must document any information used from sources in APA style as outlined in the Writing Center’s Citing Within Your PaperLinks to an external site. guide.
Must include a separate reference page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Writing Center. See the Formatting Your References
