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• Article | Annals of Emergency Medicine

  The Inpatient Discharge Lounge as a Potential Mechanism to Mitigate Emergency Department Boarding and Crowding

  Brian Franklin, Sharif Vakili, Robert S. Huckman, Sarah Hosein, Nicholas Falk, Katherine Cheng, Maria Murray, Sheila Harris, Charles A. Morris and Eric Goralnick

  Delayed access to inpatient beds for admitted patients contributes significantly to emergency department (ED) boarding and crowding, which have been associated with deleterious patient safety effects. To expedite inpatient bed availability, some hospitals have implemented discharge lounges, allowing discharged patients to depart their inpatient rooms while awaiting completion of the discharge process or transportation. This conceptual article synthesizes the evidence related to discharge lounge implementation practices and outcomes. Using a conceptual synthesis approach, we reviewed the medical and gray literature related to discharge lounges by querying PubMed, Google Scholar, and Google and undertaking backward reference searching. We screened for articles either providing detailed accounts of discharge lounge implementations or offering conceptual analysis on the subject. Most of the evidence we identified was in the gray literature, with only three peer-reviewed articles focusing on discharge lounge implementations. Articles generally encompassed single-site descriptive case studies or expert opinions. Significant heterogeneity exists in discharge lounge objectives, features, and apparent influence on patient flow. Although common barriers to discharge lounge performance have been documented, including underuse and care team objections, limited generalizable solutions are offered. Overall, discharge lounges are widely endorsed as a mechanism to accelerate access to inpatient beds, yet the limited available evidence indicates wide variation in design and performance. Further rigorous investigation is required to identify the circumstances under which discharge lounges should be deployed as well as how discharge lounges should be designed to maximize their effect on hospitalwide patient flow, ED boarding and crowding, and other targeted outcomes.

  Keywords: health care delivery; emergency room; operations improvement; operations management; Health Care and Treatment; Service Delivery; Operations; Management; Performance Improvement; Service Operations;

  Citation:

  Franklin, Brian, Sharif Vakili, Robert S. Huckman, Sarah Hosein, Nicholas Falk, Katherine Cheng, Maria Murray, Sheila Harris, Charles A. Morris, and Eric Goralnick. "The Inpatient Discharge Lounge as a Potential Mechanism to Mitigate Emergency Department Boarding and Crowding." Annals of Emergency Medicine 75, no. 6 (June 2020): 704–714.  View Details

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• Article | NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery | May–June 2020

  The Agenda for the Next Generation of Health Care Information Technology

  Thomas W. Feeley, Zachary Landman and Michael E. Porter

  As the diffusion of value-based health care efforts accelerates globally, the need for interoperable information technology systems that support value-based care is essential. Such systems are needed to facilitate dramatic improvements in patient outcomes and efficiency and, importantly, to end an era in which health IT has entrenched the status quo, perpetuated silos, and blocked reimbursement reform. A value-enabling IT platform must organize data around conditions and must enable integrated practice units to integrate care both within and across health systems. In addition, the electronic health record should be the sole source of costing information so that accurate costs for every encounter can be tracked, aggregated, shared, and used for improvement. This is the next generation of health care IT.

  Keywords: value-based health care; Health Care and Treatment; Information Technology; Integration; Performance Improvement; Performance Efficiency;

  Citation:

  Feeley, Thomas W., Zachary Landman, and Michael E. Porter. "The Agenda for the Next Generation of Health Care Information Technology." NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery 1, no. 3 (May–June 2020).  View Details

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• Column | Harvard Business Review (website)

  What Will U.S. Health Care Look Like After the Pandemic?

  Robert S. Huckman

  The pandemic crisis is almost certain to change many American industries. It would be a shame if health care is not one of them. A number of major practices have been altered to help the country cope with the extraordinary demands that the pandemic has imposed on the health care system. This article argues that the changes should include allowing physicians to practice across state lines, the broader use of telemedicine, the expansion of the health care workforce, and a new model for health care insurance.

  Keywords: Health Pandemics; Health Care and Treatment; Change; Health Industry; United States;

  Citation:

  Huckman, Robert S. "What Will U.S. Health Care Look Like After the Pandemic?" Harvard Business Review (website) (April 7, 2020).  View Details

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