Results of initiative far exceed most targets

The Scarborough Hospital’s Birchmount campus has exceeded most provincial targets in a program aimed at improving patient flow in its Emergency Department and in its 3D inpatient unit.

The Birchmount campus was asked in May 2010 to participate in a provincial initiative – the Process Improvement Program (PIP), Wave III – to improve the patient experience. The campus launched its first formalized Rapid Assessment Zone (RAZ) Unit in October, and already, the results are impressive:

• The Emergency Department reduced its Physician Initial Assessment (PIA) to 2.9 hours from its baseline 4.20 hours. (The CE LHIN’s target is 3.80 hours);
• The Left Without Being Seen (LWBS) rate was reduced to 1.5 per cent from 5 per cent;
• And bed turnaround time, from a patient being discharged on an inpatient unit to a new patient arriving into that same bed, was reduced to 2 hours and five minutes, from an estimated four hours.

“We have had staggering improvements in our performance,” explains Dr. Tom Chan, Chief of Emergency Medicine at TSH. “Our physician initial assessment and length of stay times have tumbled. In addition, we have noticed a significant decrease in our left-without-being-seen numbers as well as our bed turnaround time.

“To be clear, our baseline performance, prior to PIP, was already pretty good. But, since implementing our current strategies, our performance is fantastic.

“This infrastructure of rapid analysis and implementation cycles will ensure that our processes remain dynamic and responsive to our community’s needs for now and into the future.”

WHAT: PIP Celebration
WHEN: Monday, December 13, 5:00 p.m.
WHERE: The Scarborough Hospital, Birchmount campus, Irene Stickland Centre
WHO: Dr. Tom Chan, Medical Director and Chief of Emergency and Urgent Care, Dr. John Wright, TSH President and CEO, Lindsay Crawford, Vice President, Patient Services

Situated in the most diverse community in Canada, The Scarborough Hospital (TSH) delivers innovative, high-quality patient care at two hospital campuses and six satellite sites. The Scarborough Hospital is a regional centre for dialysis and is renowned for its sexual assault care centre and mental health programs. Affiliated with the University of Toronto, TSH is also a referral centre for vascular surgery, pacemakers and corneal implants.

-30-

For more information, please contact:

Cindy Woods, Communications Officer
The Scarborough Hospital
416-438-2911 ext. 6594
cwoods@tsh.to