Healthcare Management: Patient Flow in Hospitals.

The patient flow is the movement of people within a healthcare facility. As one of the most important components of hospital design, successful patient flow ensures that the hospital can provide the right care at the right time while minimizing the potential risk of disease transmission. Especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, the way people enter, move through, and leave hospitals has never been such an important topic of public health debate as it is today.

Hundreds of hospitals around the world have responded to the rapidly changing needs in healthcare with strategies such as increasing capacity, digitization, and minimizing interventions. However, the lack of efficient management of patient volume and patient flow can dampen all these other efforts.

The need for a new approach to patient flow management

Patient flow management is a scientific discipline that is often studied and carried out by medical design experts or architects specializing in healthcare facilities. Hospitals are typically divided into four areas according to their function: sterile, semi-clean, general, and unsterile. Interlocking airlock doors separate these areas unidirectionally from each other to manage both patient flow and air.

The patients who visit a hospital can roughly be divided into two categories: those with an acute illness requiring immediate treatment, and those who use health services to treat chronic diseases—even though some patients may belong to both groups. While patients in the latter group may not require immediate treatment, especially those with chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, or heart disease are often more susceptible to hospital-acquired infections. Therefore, successful patient flow management must take into account the diverse and different needs in its design.

How do new technologies optimize patient flow?

“Achieving hospital-wide patient flow and ultimately improving outcomes and experiences in patient care requires an appreciation of the hospital as an interconnected, interdependent care system,” write the authors of a report published by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Optimal patient flow also requires strong leadership and communication within healthcare facilities.

Technological solutions that help hospitals achieve optimal patient flow are, however, a steadily growing market. These technological tools help track the movement of patients, information, or the flow of equipment between organizations.

Airports should inspire patient flow in hospitals

In the near future, patients may expect that the patient flow in hospitals will increasingly resemble that of airports, where passenger flow is a fundamental component of security.

Like airports, hospitals must continue to rely on data to optimize patient flow. Some advanced technologies used by the airports of the future, such as biometric screening or Bluetooth-enabled wayfinding technologies, are already spreading in hospitals.

A digital reform of entrances

Many hospitals and health systems adapted to ongoing health needs and upgraded and digitized their doors and entrance systems overall.

“Digital tools are now available and can provide a real-time overview of where each individual patient is, along with their health status,” says Sir Jonathan Michael, an independent healthcare consultant. “Now is the time to increase the momentum in the use of health technology.”

In many cases, smart access solutions can also help collect data, separate patients with different needs, limit the number of people entering the facility, and admit urgent cases more quickly.

The specifications and needs of each healthcare facility are unique. Therefore, optimizing patient flow to maximize public health outcomes is a complex decision that requires the collaboration of multiple stakeholders.

In an environment where every second can save lives, patient flow in hospitals is undoubtedly a conversation that will increasingly be heard in healthcare communities.