A mobile application that compiles real-time data from patients admitted to the emergency department helps reduce waiting times at the Laval hospital, a solution for the future that could be implemented elsewhere in Quebec.
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“We work just as hard, but we work better”, sums up the Dr Patrick Tardif, head of emergency at the Cité-de-la-Santé hospital in Laval.
Compiling all kinds of patient data from different software, the DIAG (for diagnosis) application was created by the hospital’s IT team, in 2018, under the supervision of Dr.rTardif.
Updated every five minutes, the application allows managers to follow live on their cell phone the traffic of the busiest emergency in the province (waiting on stretcher, delays of more than 24 hours, etc.). When a statistic exceeds the acceptable threshold, it is displayed in red.
“Culture change”
Before, the data was compiled every month, which did not represent real-time reality at all.
“It’s a change of culture, to give information to people in the field. One of the biggest barriers to performance is that people don’t see the impact of their work [inefficace] “, notes the Dr Tardif.
Despite the challenges of the pandemic, DIAG has already shown promising results.
Last year, the average length of stay on a stretcher had decreased by one hour (to 14.9 hours). However, most hospitals had rather seen their statistics increase.
“Emergencies have always been a disaster in Quebec, admits the Dr Late. I think we would have been in trouble like other emergencies if we hadn’t made those changes. »
The managers of some departments also have access to this data (cardiology, pneumology, internal medicine), to help them speed up treatment. Eventually, all specialties will be connected.
“It helps them see where the priorities are, […] in what order to do things to free up beds,” adds Chantal Friset, Deputy President and CEO of the CISSS de Laval.
Since the pandemic, the pressure on the hospital network has demonstrated the importance of data to improve fluidity.
The DIAG application goes in this direction, since the managers know exactly where the bottlenecks are.
If each patient’s ER stay is reduced by one hour, the overall impact is great.
“If we see patients more quickly, that makes room for others,” says the emergency physician. This is where the solution lies. We don’t have more staff, we don’t have more beds. We have to find a way to generate capacity, ”says the Dr Tardif.
” Cheap “
The annual cost of using the DIAG software is around $350,000, a sum well invested considering the benefits, believes the Dr Tardif.
” It is cheap. There is a greater cost to non-performance,” he says.
Already, the doctor has presented DIAG to a few hospital managements in the Montreal region, and points out that the software is in the sights of the Ministry of Health as a promising innovative project.
“These are things that the ministry looks at a lot and in which it places a lot of hope,” he said. Fluidity is the hot topic right now. People are looking for innovative practices. »
Photo Joël Lemay, QMI Agency
Physician managers have access to real-time data to help make it easier to send patients to the right place, faster. For example, when a cardiologist notices that a patient has been waiting too long for an examination in the emergency room, he can take action to speed up treatment in his department.
Example of real-time emergency statistics
■ Occupancy rate on stretcher
■ Patients on stretcher for more than 24 and 48 hours
■ Patients awaiting medical consultation (e.g. cardiology)
■ Number of ambulance transports for 24 hours
■ Percentage of patients stretchered since midnight