Institute for Healthcare Improvement: Expedition: Improving Flow in Key Areas

OVERVIEW

This program is one way that IHI is helping hospitals implement a key component of the IHI Improvement Map.

The kind of smooth patient flow throughout the hospital that eliminates unwanted waits and delays and makes care safer requires changes across the entire system. This can be a daunting prospect for many hospitals. However, making proven changes in three key areas--the Emergency Department (ED), Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and Operating Room (OR)--where bottlenecks frequently occur, can substantially affect results day-to-day and set the foundation for dramatically better flow throughout a hospital. Testing and implementing these changes will help an hospitals reduce waits, delays, and cancellations, while setting the stage for more advanced strategies and substantial improvement.

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is now offering its latest Expedition, Improving Flow in Key Areas – ED, ICU, and OR, to provide hospitals with the foundation and skills required to improve throughput in the three areas where most bottlenecks occur. Over the course of seven web-based sessions, teams will be provided proven change ideas to test in their setting, with the expectation that they will make progress in the ED, ICU, and OR. Expert faculty will guide teams as they test these changes. Participants will also learn to make the linkages between reducing bottlenecks in specific areas of the hospital and system-wide flow so that the gains in one area aren’t lost further along the chain.

Objectives
At the end of this Expedition, participants will be able to:

Describe a major strategy for beginning to improve flow and apply it in their settings
Begin to identify and remove or improve the most important bottlenecks to flow in their hospitals
Test and build on initial changes to demonstrate a change in throughput in at least one key area, including the ED, ICU, and OR

Who Should Participate

Directors
Vice Presidents
Nursing Leaders
Chief Operating Officers
Quality Improvement Leaders
Emergency Department Directors
Unit Directors
Flow Coordinators
Physicians

WHAT IS AN EXPEDITION?

WHAT'S INVOLVED?

ex•pe•di•tion (noun)

1. an excursion, journey, or voyage made for some specific purpose

2. the group of persons engaged in such an activity

3. promptness or speed in accomplishing something

An Expedition is a topic-specific, action-focused program, lasting three to five months, designed to help front-line teams make rapid improvements in key components of the Improvement Map. Think of it as an intensive virtual support system, designed to enable widespread uptake of an important hospital improvement.

This Expedition is for hospitals that would like some help along the way from expert faculty serving as your guides and through the support of other organizations who are taking on the same challenge at the same time.

Don't join just one Expedition. Membership in IHI's Passport provides your organization with access to every Expedition.

Successful Expedition

“The CA-UTI Expedition . . . was a wonderful experience. Participating in an IHI-sponsored national project helped our credibility and increased our ability to overcome challenges that might have been insurmountable a few months ago. We have made progress by taking part in the Expedition and we will continue to build on what we have learned thus far. We would definitely recommend that any hospital participate in an Expedition if they are interested in making changes . . . that lead to better patient outcomes.”

Pam Webb, RN, CIC
Infection Control Officer
Benefis Hospital
Great Falls, Montana

The Program

This program will include:

Send-Off Call to orient all teams, review the route, and provide guidance for specific steps
Check-In Calls every two weeks for faculty to provide advice and mid-course adjustments
Ongoing opportunities to share with and learn from other participating organizations
Opportunities for periodic check-ins with faculty
Concluding Call to reflect on the achievement and plot the next climb

Success Factors

Teams will need the following to be successful in this Expedition:

Strong team-based improvement capacity
Designated team, ideally to include a nurse working on the testing unit or able to lead the work, an internal quality/performance improvement expert, and a physician champion
Sponsorship and support from hospital leadership
Clear commitment to the goal and the process