Sinai Chicago Launches Innovative Patient Flow Technology to Create a Patient-Centric Transformational Experience

CHICAGO, IL (May 26, 2021)—Sinai Chicago, which for more than a century has been providing exceptional healthcare to the residents of Chicago’s West and Southwest sides, recently launched an innovative patient throughput technology to transform health care delivery and create a more seamless and caring patient experience.

Sinai Chicago implemented Teletracking patient flow technology in November 2020—during a point of high COVID-19 cases. The effort included the creation of a Hospital Command Center to centralize hospital functions that were once siloed, allowing for cross-collaboration and enterprise-wide visibility into bed capacity. The new program has had an immediate impact. The time it takes to prepare a bed for a new patient has been reduced; workflows have been automated; and communication has improved between units and referring organizations. Since initiating the program, Sinai Chicago has seen a 40% decrease in the number of patients holding in the emergency department waiting for a bed and 62% increase in direct admission conversions. 

“This is providing Sinai Chicago with critical data and infrastructure to become the provider of choice through high quality care, service and improved access to care.  We take our role of providing convenient access to essential medical services very seriously,” says Dr. Airica Steed, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Sinai Chicago.  “And that is why we are always looking for the most effective ways to create a patient-centric experience across the full care continuum. It is an important way we are helping address the health inequities and long held disparities that impact our patients, which have been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

As Chicago’s largest private safety net hospital system, Sinai Chicago provides care for the most underserved communities in Chicago. Its mission is to serve the community and ensure that everyone, no matter who they are or where they live, has access to high quality care. To achieve this goal—and to provide every patient with a proactive, responsive, transformational experience—executive leadership implemented an enhanced patient access and throughput strategy, along with the ability to utilize actionable data to drive decision-making. 

“Across the system, our leaders understand the importance and the benefit of improved throughput efforts in elevating our level of patient service and experience,” said Steed. “Improved situational awareness ultimately results in improved quality of care for every patient who comes to Sinai Chicago.”

This transformational effort has also allowed Sinai Chicago to improve its reach into the community in working with other hospitals and referral partners to ensure access to the high quality patient care.  The new program has improved the efficiency of the patient transfer process. In March 2020, patient acceptance rates for transfers to Sinai Chicago hospitals was 68%. By March 2021, this number has improved to 78% and continues to progress. The result is Sinai Chicago delivering timely, compassionate care, while also effectively responding to the -challenges the community continues to face, including COVID-19 and other conditions.

 “We are honored to be partnering with Sinai Chicago and working with them to evolve their enterprise vision, in order to provide the best possible experience for their patients and caregivers,” says Chris Johnson, Co-CEO and President, TeleTracking. “Their commitment to their community—and their ability to efficiently deliver vital care—is inspirational and impactful.”

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About Sinai Chicago

Sinai Chicago is a Chicago-based private, not-for-profit organization comprised of seven member organizations: Mount Sinai Hospital, Holy Cross Hospital, Sinai Children’s Hospital, Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital, Sinai Medical Group, Sinai Community Institute and Sinai Urban Health Institute. The health system has over 800 physicians on its hospital medical staffs, 654 licensed beds, 100,000+ annual emergency department patient visits and eight physician residency training programs. For more information, visit www.sinachicago.org 

About TeleTracking Technologies, Inc.

For every hour patients wait for care, they face objectively worse outcomes. TeleTracking believes it is unacceptable that patients are not able to access the care they need, when they need it, due to operating inefficiencies and unnecessary cost barriers. Our mission is simple, to ensure no one waits for the care they need. And that’s why more than a decade ago, TeleTracking recognized the significant benefits of a centralized approach to managing patient flow, led the development of the command center model, and has implemented more than one hundred operational command centers across the United States and United Kingdom. Named the 2019 Culture Leader of the Year at the Pittsburgh Technology Council’s Tech 50 Award, TeleTracking has delivered extraordinary outcomes for nearly three decades that have been the subject of study by the RAND Corporation.  For more information, visit www.teletracking.com.