Emergency Departments (EDs) are intended to provide expedited care to patients with conditions threatening life or limb. High volumes of non-acute patients, inefficiency in upstream hospital operations, surgical admissions, and increased lengths of stay all negatively impact operations in EDs. Overcrowding in EDs contributes to poor care, frustrated patients, increased cost, potential harm, and stress for both patients and staff. But when patients, information, and materials flow efficiently and effectively through the ED, all aspects of ED care improve dramatically, including:

• Patient safety
  
• Clinical effectiveness
• Patient and staff satisfaction
• Hospital revenue
  

The Perfecting Emergency Department Operations Seminar is a 2 day in-person program held in Boston, MA, that will introduce the necessary ingredients for designing a highly reliable ED: IHI's Model for Improvement, Lean and other foundational strategies, queuing and flow principles, theory of constraints, demand/capacity alignment, and analytics. Faculty will present real-world examples and provide actionable strategies and tactics — all developed through IHI's work with leading, innovative EDs. 

The unique methods introduced during this seminar include the use of data to assess and improve operational performance, understanding and improving critical demand/capacity issues, and innovative approaches to front-end and back-end operations. The methods will allow for customization of operational and staffing configurations based on your patient volume and patient mix.