Local hospital uses computer innovation to improve standards

by Colin Mansell
Managers at Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital are depending on management technology to cut wait times and improve patient relations.

Windsor hospitals report an wait time average of 11 hours between patient admission and departure and although it is three hours longer than Ontario’s standard, they remain in the top bracket in the province. Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital officials have implemented two new systems to help track patients and monitor efficiency: Mediworxx and VIBE.

Mediworxx is a tracking program primarily used by nurses to track the daily process of patients, measure patient release rates, and identify the patients’ needs. VIBE is a live data system that was developed by Oculys, a company based in Kitchener at St. Mary’s Hospital. Shelley Cole is manager of patient flow at HDGH and was instrumental in the introduction of VIBE to Windsor and made adjustments to better suit HDGH’s needs.

“Bed allocation and admission of long-term care patients is our biggest challenge, so we’ve decided to use a strategy that is fast and allows safe transferal of patients,” said Cole. “VIBE is extremely impressive. It tracks the needs of all patients in all departments and as a result, overall occupancy is down to 92 per cent.”

VIBE contributes to the emergency room’s efficiency by providing exact information such as inpatient service required, any reasons for isolation, registration times and status of bed availability.

“This is transparent software, information is available for everyone to see,” said Cole.

While the technology is targeted towards wait times, Jim Douglas, the public relations specialist at HDGH, said these systems will contribute in all areas.

“We are a trauma facility, but we also focus on specialty care, for example, Hotel-Dieu is a stroke centre, including cardiac investigation,” said Douglas. “This lets us focus on wait times and be responsive to patients’ needs.”