1. Set your daily cadence, huddles, escalations etc and synchronise them around patient flow imperatives - 7 days a week 2. Know your planned and unplanned demand profile 4-5 days in advance, keeping your eye on your accumulative predicted capacity (and pull levers as required) 3. Keep local teams focused on LOS/RSI and other clinical variations (HACS) as a sign that care coordination perhaps isn’t as it should be 4. ensure you capacity is matched to the case mix and not focused on inpatient overnight beds only (maintenance, sub-acute, HITH, ambulatory care etc)

Improving patient flow in a busy hospital requires a combination of strategic planning, process optimization, and technology integration. Start by analyzing current bottlenecks using data and feedback from staff and patients. Streamline workflows by implementing triage protocols, prioritizing critical cases, and redistributing resources during peak hours. Invest in technology like patient tracking systems, automated scheduling, and electronic health records to enhance coordination and reduce delays. Regularly train staff on time management and communication to ensure smoother transitions. Lastly, foster interdisciplinary collaboration to address issues in real time and maintain a patient-centered approach even in high-pressure situations.

In my experience working on patient flow improvements at a community hospital, we once faced a bottleneck in our discharge process that slowed down bed turnover. Collaborating with the discharge planning team, we introduced a "discharge readiness checklist" for patients and families, starting 48 hours before expected discharge. This simple tool ensured medications, follow-ups, and transportation were arranged in advance. The result? A 25% faster discharge process and fewer delays in admitting new patients. Small, team-driven changes can make a big impact on overall patient flow.

Además de la planificación estratégica, optimizar el flujo de pacientes requiere incorporar tecnología y fomentar la colaboración interdisciplinaria. La implementación de sistemas de gestión de camas y herramientas de IA puede ayudar a prever demandas, asignar recursos eficientemente y reducir tiempos de espera. Asimismo, es crucial involucrar a todos los equipos, desde admisión hasta el alta médica, para identificar cuellos de botella y proponer soluciones prácticas. Crear protocolos claros y flexibles que prioricen la seguridad del paciente y agilicen procesos también es fundamental. El éxito radica en una combinación de tecnología, comunicación y mejora continua.

Rather than "what to do," the problem is more "how to actually do it." Healthcare complexity is growing fast. With new workflows, supply chain disruptions, and constant turnover, training staff is near impossible (and knowledge retention is even harder). Ebbinghaus illustrated how we forget 40% of what we learn in 20 minutes, and 70% within one day. In our ICU, we had countless policies and procedures lost in binders, fliers, emails, intranet. Hard to find, let alone digest. We solved this by creating just-in-time job aids (video, concise how-to guides, interactive checklists) in an app accessible by any staff, anytime, anywhere. Opacity to transparency. Variability to consistency. Chaos to efficiency. We've now scaled it to 40+ hospitals.

Streamlining the processes and hospital operations is extremely important in improving the patient flow within the facility as good hospital management plays a big role

1.Always start trying out the flow yourself and what would you like it and what did you not like it 2. Listen to the ground level how can they balance and improve 3. Listening to the feedback also helps