The command center acts as a central hub for managing transportation, patient bed placement and a patient’s path of discharge. Before the command center, each of the network’s locations had their own processes.
“As our network has grown and really got more into the communities we serve, we’ve had to say let’s look and see how we do things a little differently,” said John Weimer, vice president of emergency and trauma services for Kettering Health, who also oversees the command center.
The point of the facility is to centralize these operations for the entire system, which includes eight hospitals, 11 emergency rooms and 120 outpatient centers. The health network is currently expanding and adding more locations that will need coordination, including a freestanding ER under construction in Piqua and a new hospital underway in Troy.
The system uses software from TeleTracking Technologies for managing patient flow from all access points including the emergency department, operating room, direct admissions and transfers from other facilities. The software streamlines and automates a patient’s progression, according to the health network.
Leaders from other health systems were visiting today to learn about the new command center as part of a forum about coordination of patient care.
“They’re coming here to see the lessons we’ve learned. So we can share that knowledge and help that next house system in the future,” Weimer said.
When the project was first announced in August, Kettering Health officials said the 17,000-square-foot command center, which will originally employ about 25, could grow to 40,000 square feet and employ 300 when fully functional.