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Here's how a hospital's physical therapy department designed an efficient, patient-centric system for managing referrals.

Feature - Referral Management 01

Physical therapy departments in acute care hospitals are under growing pressure to align their practices with hospital initiatives designed to decrease length of stay, discharge patients in a timely manner, and reduce readmissions. At Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (CSMC) in Los Angeles, it seemed that we had many more patients to see, and cases to manage, than could be handled within our desired timeframe.

CSMC is a large urban academic and research hospital that features a level-1 trauma center. In the Acute Physical Therapy Department, we receive an average of 1,350 referrals per month but have a staff of just 44 individuals—23 full-time staff, 6 part time, and 15 per diem. At first glance, the solution is simply to hire more staff. From a business perspective, however, this would require justifying the need for more staff via productivity standards and other financial metrics—a potentially complex and time-consuming process. And hiring staff might not be the best solution, anyway. We decided to tackle the situation by first looking internally.

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  3. Steiner C, Andrews R, Barrett M, Weiss A. HCUP Projections: Mobility/Orthopedic Procedures 2003 to 2012. 2012. HCUP Projections Report # 2012-03. US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/projections/2012-03.pdf. Accessed October 6, 2015.
  4. Smorawinski J, et al. Effects of 3-day bed rest on physiological response to graded exercise in athletes and sedentary men. J Applied Physiology. 2001;91(1):249-257.
  5. American Heart Association. Sudden blood pressure drop with position change linked to higher risk of heart failure. http://newsroom.heart.org/news/sudden-blood-pressure-drop-with-230541. Accessed October 6, 2015.
  6. * Jones CD, Loehr L, et al. Sudden blood pressure drop with position change linked to higher risk of heart failure. http://newsroom.heart.org/news/sudden-blood-pressure-drop-with-2305. Accessed November 21, 2014.

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