Streamlining Access and Flow to Hospice Palliative Care Beds.

THE CLIENT

The Fraser Health Authority (FHA) is one of five regional health authorities in British Columbia, Canada, responsible for the delivery of hospital and community-based health services to over 1.8 million people in 20 diverse communities.

THE PROBLEM

Prior to partnering with Strata Health, Fraser Health Authority’s access coordinators made patient placement decisions for over 800 hospice beds across ten sites based on information gathered from manual tools and techniques like spreadsheets, phone calls and emails. Despite best efforts, the data was often out-of-date, bed availability and the status of referrals were not visible, and the process for matching patients to beds was labour-intensive and inefficient.

THE SOLUTION

Strata Health worked with FHA to improve the hospice management process, making it more equitable and effective by using an electronic system for waitlist management and bed matching. Strata and FHA kicked off the project in April of 2020. Within seven days, Strata developed an online beta software service to use as a base for discussions. Over the next four months, various stakeholders were given a voice to ensure that the solution reflected the front-line workers’ reality. By the end of August 2020, FHA had completed User Acceptance Testing and went live in September 2020.

THE BENEFITS

By replacing outdated, paper-based methods and introducing Strata Health’s digital solution, FHA access coordinators benefit from enhanced capabilities, such as:

  • A streamlined process for all stakeholders
  • Real-time visibility and transparency into bed capacity across the entire region
  • Intelligent bed matching algorithms based on patient priority
  • Data-driven decision support tools to inform equitable decision making
  • At-a-glance dashboard views of patient referral status
  • Automatic reports on performance metrics and outcomes

THE RESULTS

Today, FHA’s Hospice Palliative Care Program, powered by Strata Health technology, is utilized by close to 250 users. Within the first month of being deployed, over 200 patients were successfully matched and admitted to hospice palliative care facilities without the use of phone, fax or spreadsheets. The paperless, streamlined system has received praise from care coordinators, who are saving more time and ultimately caring for more patients.

NEXT STEPS

To minimize data reentry, establish a source of truth, and increase consistency in patient demographic information, Strata Health is discussing a more integrated workflow between PARIS, the FHA’s main system for managing patient data, and Strata Pathways as part of a potential Phase 2 Implementation.

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