CRMC Working To Smooth Out New Emergency Department Patient Flow Procedure

Cookeville Regional’s new emergency room procedures have produced shorter wait times along with some new complaints as the facility works to smooth out the new processes.

Interim Chief Nursing Officer Chevelle Johnson said the hospital had implemented new patient flow procedures earlier this year in hopes of speeding up and improving emergency patient care. While it has been mostly successful, the biggest complaint with the new approach was the effect on patient privacy.

“We didn’t put patients in a bed in private rooms, patients are put in chairs and there were multiple chairs in the rooms,” Johnson said.”So to help with the privacy concern we’ve actually hung curtains in all the rooms. And if a patient needs to be spoken with, something private about their health conditions, they’re taken to a private room.”

Johnson said overall, the hospital has decreased the number of patients waiting in the lobby by 50 percent. She said they have also decreased the waiting room time by 30 minutes.

The crux of the new patient flow procedure is that instead of the provider will go to the patient rather than the patient waiting until they get a bed to see them. The intention is that these patients will be going home.

Johnson said if results come back that require an additional level of care, which usually needs more nursing care and treatment. She said they have been working through that on the staffing side to help make those adjustments.

“We know we’re not where we want to be yet but we are working diligently with our providers, our staff, and each other,” Interim CEO Buffy Key said. “It’s probably a conversation we share three or four times a day. We hear our patients, we hear the community, and we are going to get better.”