Often times patients being discharged from acute care settings require long-term care that cannot be met at home. However, finding the right bed at the right facility at the right time for the patient is a process that is not always seamless or efficient. Members of the patient placement team invest an excessive amount of time searching for post-acute care options, leading to extended wait times for patients and their families and prolonged periods without beds for incoming patients. With Community Placement, transfer center agents have clear visibility into where beds are available, increasing the rate at which a patient can be placed and begins receiving care outside the walls of the hospital. Utilizing TeleTracking, Patient Placement Departments will be able to:

This Reference Guide provides step-by-step instructions for the functionality needed to complete the designed Patient Flow processes and workflows specific to the department.

Launch TeleTracking and input your User Login ID and Password. Click the Sign In button.

From the Clinical Operations menu, click the PreAdmitTracking® option

You will now see the Patient Placement view.

In the upper-right corner, click on sign out or end session.

Viewing bed requests is an essential piece of patient flow for Patient Placement / House Supervisor. As bed requests are entered into the system and targeted to your facility, the Patient Placement / House Supervisor will be provided with valuable information that will allow them to update patient records in the ADT System. Bed requests will come from the Transfer Center as Direct Admissions.

If a bed request is relevant to the Patient Placement / House Supervisor, a notification is sent in the form of a screen Alert. Patient Placement / House Supervisor will have access to the patient record and can review the information provided. The information provided may trigger the Patient Placement / House Supervisor to update information in the ADT System. For example, diagnosis. Patient Placement / House Supervisor will also be notified as new Direct Admits requests are entered so they can complete the quick registration prior to the patient’s arrival if appropriate.

Once a Screen Alert message is received for a bed request, either click directly on the message or identify the patient from the appropriate tab and click on their name.

The Patient/Placement Details box opens, and you can review the information in the request. You will see the following:

Once the information is reviewed; update any appropriate information in the ADT system.

Save and close the record.

NOTE:

The electronic bedboard is one of the most important tools for Patient Placement staff. When using the electronic bedboard, Patient Placement sees the real-time status of every bed in the hospital, helping them to efficiently manage patient flow.

NOTE:

Click on the electronic whiteboard icon and select the appropriate bedboard. The bedboard will open in a separate window.

Census: Overall census of units included in the bedboard.

Some units may not be present based on your hospital’s design.

Unit Name: Appears at the top of each column.

PB: Physical Beds-Licensed physical bed count of the unit.

CN: Census Count-Current unit census.

The Colored Border represents unit capacity:

Bed Number

Gender - Denoted by background color

Bed Status-labeled and indicated with a background color.

The Patient Tracking Portal is an application designed to present discharge activity on a unit level. Unlike Capacity IQ® PreAdmit, this view is most suitable for Case Management staff focusing on specific units, eliminating the need for an overview of hospital-wide discharges. The example below illustrates a Case Management Patient Tracking Portal view. Comprehensive details regarding content and related functionality will be explored in this reference guide.

Discharge planning serves as the foundation for systematic, effective patient flow. Expected, planned, coordinated, and completed patient discharges improve patient care, and satisfaction, and create stability in hospital capacity. Without effective discharge planning, a hospital would be unable to meet admission demand. Hospitals depend on Nursing Units and Case Management to facilitate discharges but keeping an open communication with Patient Placement is also a critical step in the process. Discharge planning tools will enable users to effectively update discharge activity and communicate to all areas impacted by patient discharges including Patient Placement and EVS.

There are two types of discharge statuses that a patient can be in, a Pending Discharge or a Confirmed Discharge.

Pending Discharge: an educated decision from the Nursing Unit or Case Management that a patient may be discharged within the next 24 hours. Pending Discharges are represented by:

d(lowercase) with a blue background - Pending Discharge with a discharge date after today or if there is no projected discharge date identified.

D(Uppercase) with a blue background - Pending Discharge with a discharge for today.

Confirmed Discharge: a written order that a patient will be discharged. These orders do/do not automate the Confirmed Discharge at your hospital. Confirmed Discharges are represented by:

c(lowercase) with a red background - Confirmed Discharge with a discharge date after today or if there is no projected discharge date identified.

C(Uppercase) with a red background - Confirmed Discharge with a discharge date for today.

In PatientTracking Portal™, to set a Pending or Confirmed Discharge, click on the ST column for the appropriate patient.

Choose either Set Confirmed Discharge or Set Pending Discharge.

A pop-up box will appear confirming the action.

Update the Projected Discharge date and time to the best estimate. This is only used as a guideline to help Patient Placement know when the bed might be vacated.

Click Save.

The patient’s ST column will now display the appropriate status.

The Milestones column will also now be displayed for the patient.