Patient Flow Optimization at the US National Military Medical Center

Overview

This National Military Medical Center (NMMC) is considered a flagship inmilitary medicine. Seeing around one million patients per year, it is one ofthe largest military treatment facilities in the world.  They offer arange of military health services including primary care, hospital, and urgentcare, mental health services, dental, pharmacy, and vision. 

The Challenge

With a future vision for patient flow and experience that could not be met with the incumbent system, this NMMC required a Queue Management systemthat could enable their plans. Crowded waiting rooms, an outdated system, and a disorganized patient data architecture led to unnecessary time being spent on tasks and building inefficiency within the facility. They needed a modernized system that added new functionalities to improve the patient experience (PX),prioritization, data tracking, and patient flow. Further, they needed to integrate with an appointment system that enabled virtual check-ins, overall creating a seamless end-to-end patient journey.

The Solution

Q-nomy's local partner and systems integrator, ACF, worked with this MilitaryTreatment Facility to implement an enterprise Patient Flow system, using Q-nomy's Q-Flow platform. Our partner integrated a unit-by-unit deployment, replacing the old system through a seamless switchover, creating no gap in service time for their medical facility. This new solution would achieve the following goals and leverage theQ-Flow ATO (Authorization to Operate) to meet all DHA security requirements:

• Integrate with existing Electronic Health Record (EHR) system for patient and appointment look-up and check-in. 

• Improve the patient experience by offering a more modernized patient flow system. 

• Reduce patient wait times and increase patient throughput. 
• Increase the efficiency of clinical teams to manage patient workloads.
• Drive operational efficiencies to create incremental cost savings.
• Empower clinical teams with new user interface features (patient routing & reporting).
• Increase visibility and accuracy of data insights and workflow analytics to team managers, and command leadership locally and enterprise-wide. 
• Ongoing enterprise solution support covering primary business hours.
     

In researching a suitable solution, the project team consulted other states. They wanted to pinpoint a simple solution to their problem, learn from their peers’ successes and stumbles, and implement a solution within 90 days –something unheard of for government projects. 

It quickly became clear that what was needed was an out-of-the-box appointment booking system that could be adapted to manage a hybrid model of appointments and walk-ins. Essentially, they wanted their seniors and VIPs to be able to still walk in without an appointment.

The Results

Through a collaborative effort with the Military Treatment Facility, a seamless transition to Q-Flow was successfully achieved. The adoption of this new system brought several benefits 
to the facility, including:

• Reduced the average booking time and streamlined the appointment booking process for improved efficiency.
• Increased overall staff efficiency in managing and serving appointments, allowing them to allocate their time more effectively.
• Improved staff satisfaction with the new booking system, as it enhanced their workflow and productivity.
• Enhanced visibility of data and insights through the comprehensive reporting suite, enabling better decision-making based     on accurate information.
• Heightened overall customer satisfaction with the appointment booking journeys, resulting in a positive experience for patients. 
     
     

It goes without saying that this has also made for a much less stressful environment for staff. Employees had to spend long periods outside assisting customers and checking documents. Now they’re inside serving customers, and operations are more efficient than ever while employee morale has improved across every office. When people walk into one of their offices and they see a calm, organized environment they’re less anxious, and that’s half the battle won right there.

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