Palmyra ER Goes Lean to Meet Growing Demand
Monday, April 5th, 2010
Emergency-room visits jumped 14 percent in 2009 at Palmyra Medical Center. Behind that increase is a growing population of unemployed and underemployed without health insurance that are using the emergency room as their primary source of health care. “For the first time in Palmyra’s history, ER visits exceeded 30,000 in 2009 and we’re expecting 30,000 to 40,000 visits in 2010,” said Mark Rader, chief executive officer of Palmyra Medical Center.
Lean Manufacturing Streamlines ER Processes
To keep up with the demand for services, Palmyra is applying lean manufacturing principles to its emergency-room processes in order to become more efficient. Everything is being analyzed from the moment a patient first arrives in the emergency room to discharge or admission into the hospital.
“Everyone in the emergency room is engaged and energized by this process because we think it will enable us to provide the very best care to our patients,” Rader said.
Among the improvements instituted are a Fast Track process for patients whose need is determined to be less serious. Upon entering the waiting room, patients are triaged to establish the level of care needed. True emergencies are treated immediately in the main emergency room while patients who may be seeking primary care are seen in the Fast Track area. Fast Track patients are treated as needed away from serious emergencies and are usually discharged much more quickly.
Emergency-room wait times are also posted on the Palmyra website or can be found by texting "ER" to 23000. People with non-urgent medical needs can use this information to plan an emergency-room visit at non-peak times.
Using Technology to Improve Quality of Care
Palmyra is also investing in new technologies to improve the quality of patient care. For example, the medical center offers a teleneurology service, which provides patient access to neurologists at the Medical College of Georgia. Telemedicine helps Palmyra and other hospitals in smaller population centers access a wider network of specialists and manage chronic physician shortages.
“We’re seeing the number of practicing physicians decline nationwide at the same time that aging baby-boomers are demanding more health care services. It’s one of the greatest challenges we face,” Rader said.
Palmyra has successfully recruited a neurosurgeon to its staff to perform brain and spinal surgeries. A number of other new services are being added which will include a new pediatrics unit. Planning is under way for a new obstetrics service unit.
Rader also welcomes another technology-enabled innovation – patient access to quality of care data that can be used to compare hospitals and physicians. These types of benchmarks are available online at websites like www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov.
“We welcome comparisons to hospitals nationwide,” Rader said. “We want to deliver the same level of care as the best hospitals in the country because people in the Albany area deserve no less.”
Serving Patients With the Utmost Care
According to Rader, Palmyra is ready to work with local businesses and their employees to provide health care services regardless of their particular insurance company network.
“We want to work with employers even if their health insurance policy does not include Palmyra. We will waive out-of-network costs for their employees,” Rader said.
Personal care is a priority with Rader. He cites the fact that every acute care room in Palmyra is a private room as an example of the personal care that every patient receives. Soon all patients will also have the benefit of personalized room service for their meals at no additional cost to the patient.
“We want to treat every patient with the utmost care so that they are more than satisfied with their treatment and stay at Palmyra,” Rader said.
More information on Palmyra Medical Center is available online at http://www.palmyramedicalcenter.com/
