Located in the historic port city of Brunswick, Georgia, the Brunswick Campus of the Southeast Georgia Health System is a full service not-for-profit hospital serving over 11,000 patients annually and over 50,000 in the Emergency Care Center. The Outpatient Care Center (OCC), a 195,000 square foot state-of-the-art outpatient and imaging services facility, brings accessible, high quality, cost-effective care to communities across eight southeast Georgia counties.
Tracking 200 patients a day
The bustling OCC faced considerable challenges tracking more than 200 patients a day. To start, front office staff could only track patient visits through handwritten logs, making it impossible to monitor patient wait times and volume. Additionally, personnel needed to notify individual patients by pager and inform the appropriate OCC section when a patient was ready. If no pagers were available, front office staff were reduced to calling patient names across the busy waiting area, creating an unpleasant atmosphere. Meanwhile, OCC technicians and clinical staff had no consistent or reliable way to determine whether there were patients waiting. The result was time-consuming delays in care. OCC directors knew they needed a solution that would help supervisors manage and track the flow of patients and staff, while helping front office staff and medical personnel communicate better with patients and each other.
Revamping the patient experience
OCC supervisors turned to Qmatic for a patient experience solution that would address their patient tracking and data needs. Upon arrival, patients now check in at an information desk where they are entered into the Qmatic system and issued a unique alphanumeric ticket. Instead of manual paper tracking, patients are placed in specific virtual queues and prioritized by the Qmatic system.
As patients wait comfortably, the Qmatic system notifies OCC staff when a patient is available, and alerts them if patient wait times exceed allowed limits. Supervisors can respond immediately, modifying staff assignments to increase patient flow, bring wait times down, and decrease stress for both patients and staff.
“The Qmatic system is a huge time saver,” said Stephanie Sinopoli, Director of Revenue/Admissions. “Our staff can tell at a glance where in the process each patient is at all times. We know average wait times at any moment, for any point in the day.”
As each staff member becomes ready for their next patient, OCC‘s Qmatic system instantly provides the ability to call that patient. LED screens throughout the waiting area call patients for service by displaying their ticket numbers. LED screens strategically placed over specific doorways help patients find service points quickly and easily.
50% decrease in wait times
“Patient volumes have increased dramatically since we installed the Qmatic system,” said Sinopoli. “At the same time, we noticed a 50% decrease in patient wait times. With Qmatic we can maintain both the higher patient volume and the decreased service times. No longer tasked with maintaining manual patient logs, calling patients on pagers, or notifying other personnel regarding patient availability, OCC staff can instead focus on providing quality care to patients. The end result is a more efficient and congenial patient flow, with an increase in productivity and accountability.
