A case study of successful patient flow methods: St. John's Hospital.

Participating in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) IMPACT collaborative has given St. John's Hospital the opportunity to improve patient flow and the delivery of patient care. This partnership has allowed us to experience a wealth of information shared by a collaborative network of hospitals. IHI has introduced rapid-cycle improvement methodologies, variability-reduction strategies, and strategies to aid in planning for the expected as methods that have enhanced our already established performance-improvement program. St John's has achieved breakthrough improvement with patient flow.

The impact of IMPACT on St. John's Regional Health Center.

St. John's Regional Health Center (SJRHC) is participating in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's (IHI) IMPACT collaborative, a new IMProvement ACTion network of health care organizations that have joined together to improve patient care. By utilizing the network for sharing ideas, continuous quality improvement tools and support staff and physician involvement, we have achieved three important breakthrough improvements in patient flow in the hospital setting. The areas highlighted in this article are Perioperative Services, Emergency Department Admission, and Transfers to Cardiac Intensive Care Units.