Client Profile
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| 623 | beds |
| 25,000 | annual inpatient admissions |
| 72,000 | annual patient ED visits |
| 40,000 | emergency department patients per year in level II trauma center |
| 37,000 | surgeries per year in 31 OR suites |
| 415K+ | served in metropolitan area |
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| home contact us 888.436.7284 | ||
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Design and Implementation Projects Washington Client ED/Inpatient  "EMPATH has led us to tremendously leverage their change management knowledge into our organization at a pace that would have been unthinkable to us just a year ago." Carol S., Vice President, Patient Care and CNE Challenge With 623 hospital beds, a Level II Trauma Center, and an annual ED volume of over 52,000, this non-profit, faith-based hospital is one of the largest hospitals in the Pacific Northwest. In 2003, leadership faced several challenges in their emergency department (ED). Patient satisfaction levels were in the bottom quartile. Ambulance diversion, at 20 hours per week, seriously impacted patient care. ED volume continued to rise with no increase in inpatient capacity. Too many patients left before being seen by a clinician. The medical center faced significant challenges in its geographic market, including low reimbursement rates and significant increases in uncompensated care, due to increased numbers of uninsured. They were losing both patients and revenue to other hospitals. Achievement Sample of Project Results Through a strategic operations assessment, EMPATH uncovered clear indications that the enterprise's problems reached far beyond their ED walls. Solutions for the ED required simultaneous solutions for inpatient units, ICU, admitting, laboratory, radiology, transportation and surgical services. Recommendations included plans for increasing hospital capacity and patient throughput; maintaining the highest levels of quality care; significantly increasing customer satisfaction; and creating a reliable service model for unscheduled and scheduled patient care. Leaders also acknowledged that improved operations and customer satisfaction would enhance their ability to attract and retain high quality and committed nursing staff. Upon completion of the assessment, this client's Vice-President in charge of the project affirmed, "The recommendations that EMPATH provided were the most detailed and significant that I have seen from any consultant." EMPATH led this Washington client through a hospital transformation project in nearly every area of the hospital. At just the mid-way point of the project, customer satisfaction scores increased from the 30th to 80th percentile and ambulance diversion had dropped by 90%. Thirteen months after project start, customer satisfaction scores increased from the 30th percentile to above the 90th percentile, and ambulance diversion had been eliminated for 6 months, from a high of 80 hours per month. ED and OR volume increased by 20% and the hospital recaptured approximately 1,000 additional admissions per year. More than 4,000 employees were trained on new processes, with the introduction of 32 dashboard measurement systems and multiple information technology initiatives. The project realized success over its entire course. Due to this and the results indicated above, this client, out of 27 hospitals in their system, won the President's Award for Excellence—an award given each year to the system's hospital with the most significant and noteworthy operational achievements. Empath's change management methodologies streamlined patient care processes for this client in an efficient, patient-care-focused manner. The result was an outstandingly successful hospital-wide accomplishment, with staff-led initiatives built to benefit an array of strategic priorities for years to come.  "We were losing days a year cumulatively — hours here, hours there that add up to days — and we are now recapturing about 1000 admissions a year that we wouldn't capture otherwise. When you translate that into revenue stream, that's very significant. We're opening beds, getting the discharge done, getting people in and out...Not only is there substantial customer satisfaction that happens with that, but we have opened up the organization to engage more patients. So our capacity, in the ER for example, for the same space, same equipment, and virtually the same people, we can expand our volume without any capital expenditure whatsoever, because we're using what we have more effectively."— Skip D., Chief Executive Officer "The expectations that I had when we started the project are very minimal compared to what I expect now in terms of sustainability. I only had a glimmer of what this project really would mean for the organization — how much it would improve our patient throughput, patient satisfaction, operational efficiency, capacity."— Elaine C., Vice President
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