PORTLAND, Oregon — If you or a loved one has ended up in a hospital, you know just how stressful it can be. Some of that stress may come from a system with limited resources, which can cause uncertainty and delays.
That's why Oregon Health and Science University is celebrating the expansion of a "patient management system" that is now helping people statewide. The command center operates like air traffic control for resources and patient flow, through a complex hospital system.
It started in 2017, as a more efficient way to coordinate care at OHSU, Doernbecher, Hillsboro medical center, and Adventist Health Portland. Since, the command center has expanded its duties, now tracking and managing activity at 61 hospitals across the state for everything from obstetrics to acute care to intensive care needs. It also manages inpatient behavioral health care in the Portland region.
“Now we can see real time when patients are discharged from their beds, what hospital, what level of care, is there a nurse that can care for that patient… and so it really helps to coordinate efforts and get patients moved through the system and get the care they need,” said Stephanie Gilliam, who's a nurse and director of OHSU 's mission control.
The command center needs expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic to help manage the medical response statewide, followed by a triple-virus crisis that hit the state. Out of that grew a long-term commitment, supported by the Oregon Health Authority.
To do all that, OHSU recently moved the command center to a new location. While space is limited, the center is filled with big screens that show real time data and forecasted needs with help from artificial intelligence. The goal is to get patients across the state and given the care they need as efficiently as possible — because nobody likes cancellations and delays.
“And it's a moral distress for anyone who works in healthcare and it's a hardship for the patient," said Doctor Matthias Merkel, senior chief associate medical officer at OHSU. "We want to avoid that, and the real time data and forecasting helps us minimize that happening."
Merkel spearheaded the high-tech effort to improve how patients are cared for, saying that it's been huge in reducing patient wait times and improving care.
“And we're also celebrating the people because without the people the technology would not be doing the work,” Gilliam said.
The new command center and its operation uses state and federal funding. OHSU was one of the first three hospital systems in the country to partner with GE Healthcare which developed the technology. Now, there are 325 health care providers using the system.