Providence Hospital

Establishing A Confirmed Consult Notification Process

Located in Southfield, Michigan, Providence Hospital is a 459-bed acute care facility with a medical staff of over 1,150 physicians. Providence is a member of St. John Health locally, and a member of Ascension Health nationally.

Aim

Establish a standardized and measurable consult notification process that prevents communication delays.

Measures

  1. Number of total consult notifications per month.
  2. Percent of urgent notifications confirmed by physicians within 2 hours.
  3. Percent of routine notifications confirmed by physicians within 12 hours.

Changes

  1. Standardized all hospital-to-physician contact on a single-number process.
  2. Allowed physicians to distinguished consults from all other communication types.
  3. MEC adopted a standardized consult notification policy.
  4. Documented each physician’s consult communication workflow and contact preferences and assembled them into the single-number system.

Results

  1. Established standardized process with baseline consult communication performance measures.

Next Steps

Use data to refine the process and further improve performance towards target.

Download Performance Improvement Storyboard