Seeing the emergency department pager message, Kay Zimendinger looks up at the wall-mounted display screen and knows the critical care unit has a bed available.
A few keystrokes later, the department has instructions to send a newly admitted patient to the CCU, which has been notified to set up the room for the patient’s specific needs.
The new bed-tracking computer system is another step in Memorial Medical Center’s program to reduce emergency department waiting times.
Before the new system was put into service last week, the process required a series of phone calls and messages.
“The goal is to decrease the number of phone calls and to move that patient out,” nurse manager Joan Barker said in Memorial’s patient placement office.
Standing in front of the multicolor display grid, Barker explains the codes. Squares represent rooms and beds, with pink for female patients and blue for male patients. Available beds are green, for clean. Unoccupied beds in the process of being cleaned are yellow, and those waiting for housekeeping are brown.
Letter codes show which beds are reserved for admissions and which patients are being discharged or transferred.
“To look at it is a little hard,” Zimendinger said. “But once you get used to it, this is much better.”
Zimendinger has seen a few new systems in her career. She has worked at the hospital for 32 years and retired a few years back as supervisor in the admissions office. She now works part time as a patient placement clerk.
While the new system will increase efficiency throughout the hospital, leaders are focusing on their efforts to reduce emergency room backlogs.
Often, patients with less-serious conditions are kept waiting because emergency room beds are filled with those waiting to be admitted, said Patti DeFrehn, executive director of emergency and trauma.
“The supervisors and the emergency department staff will be able to be notified as soon as a bed is available,” DeFrehn said.
Local News
Hospital using technology to track, place patients
- Local News
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Boil-water notice issued in Upper Yoder Township
A boil-water notice has been issued for a portion of Upper Yoder Township as crews work to repair a leak along Route 271. -
No NDIC jobs to stay in city
After years of political clashes and fiscal uncertainty, these are the facts of the National Drug Intelligence Center’s final days:
• 87: The number of employees losing their jobs as NDIC operations wind down this year.
• 57: The number of staffers, aside from those 87, who will be offered jobs in Washington, D.C.
• Zero: The number of NDIC-related jobs that will remain in Johnstown. -
Blogging with heart
I had a couple of interesting interviews over the past 24 hours. The first was with an ambitious Forest Hills High School junior who organized a Red Out across the district today in support of American Heart Association. Like many of those involved in Heart Association benefits, Spencer Ivock was inspired by his own family members' experience with heart disease.
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Forest Hills junior puts his heart into Red Out
Forest Hills junior Spencer Ivock is “redding out” the schools today for his senior project.
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Local pair accused of robbing home twice
A Johnstown couple has been charged with breaking into a Lower Yoder Township home twice in a four-month period – and then selling, for $103, some of the thousands of dollars in goods they alleged swiped.
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Steel firm considers coal mine near Que
Cambria Somerset Authority officials plan to meet this week with representatives of an Ohio-based steel company about a plan that could put a coal mine south of the Quemahoning Reservoir.
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In brief: Somerset motorist dies in crash
A 28-year-old Somerset man was killed Thursday morning when his vehicle left the road, hit a drainage ditch and rolled over.
- Births 02/03/2012
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[VIDEO] Party in Punxsutawney: Groundhog Day is about more than seeing shadows
For the thousands who show up at Gobbler's Knob as early as 8 p.m. on Feb. 1, Groundhog Day is about more than whether or not Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow: It's an excuse to party.
The Tribune-Democrat's Justin Dennis spent the night among the masses and captured all of the festivities on film. -
[VIDEO] Punxsutawney Phil makes his prediction
More than 18,000 people – some representing states as far away as Arkansas and Oregon – crammed into the outdoor amphitheatre of Gobbler’s Knob on Thursday for the annual weather party known as Groundhog Day.
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Boil-water notice issued in Upper Yoder Township
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