Nova Scotia Command Center Rollout Begins with QE II

Halifax – A command center known as the Care Coordination Center (C3) has been established at the QEII Health Science Center. With future plans to expand statewide, C3 now plays a key role in the patient care journey, providing decision makers with access to real-time data on access, patient flows and health system resources doing.

“The idea is to apply the Command Center concept to healthcare,” said Gordon Peckham, Senior Director of Care Coordination Center Operations. “It gives us real-time live data that helps inform decisions about access and flow.”

The C3 team connects health workers across facilities to better guide each patient’s journey from first contact with the health system to discharge, whether via emergency services, specialist referrals, primary care clinics, or other methods. Adjust accordingly.

The need for a center is clear. That’s because delays at any stage of this process can have a negative impact on patient outcomes, Dr. Magee notes.

“The most obvious example is the emergency department,” said Dr. Magee. “Many of the treatments we can provide are so time-dependent that waiting in the emergency department is not just an inconvenience. I know.”

Patient care requires “coordination and integration,” explains Gordon. With the opening of C3 earlier this year, our goal is to improve this integration and coordination.

“Access to that care and flow within the system sometimes occurred independently of the requirements of other units, programs and services,” he said. “We didn’t have access to real-time information about what was happening throughout the system.”

For example, one area may have available beds and another department may have been overbooked. Without a hub to coordinate the distribution of resources, the problem remains open.

The C3 team now provides real-time data on available beds, occupied beds, predictive discharges, confirmed discharges, and demand. This data reduces wait times and improves access to care.

“Before C3, we didn’t have an automatic view of the system,” says Gordon. “Patient flow managers used to create reports manually for each unit. By the time the data reached the leadership team, there was a risk that the data would be out of date. , so you can understand what’s going on in your system when you’re talking.”

The C3 process includes daily meetings with all stakeholders. Each day at 10:00 am, representatives from all departments involved in access and flow will meet virtually, including emergency, surgical, internal medicine, geriatrics, imaging, continuum of care, and rehabilitation. Attendance at meetings fluctuates from day to day depending on the pressure of the day, explains Gordon.

“Each of these teams can help each other in different ways,” he said. “These meetings create a forum for all these different services to discuss different issues and solve problems together.”

Physician involvement is an important part of the C3 process, Dr. Magee adds.

“We are helping physicians become involved in making these changes to the process and also letting them know how C3 supports the work they are doing.”

QEII serves patient populations in and out of the state, and the C3 process has scope both geographically and in areas beyond access and flow, such as quality of care and community outreach. Zoom in.

“We’re starting with access and flow on QEII, but we plan to expand to statewide and other services,” Gordon said. “It’s about the right healthcare providers providing access to the right care at the right time.”

Doris Grant, Senior Director of Innovation at Nova Scotia Health, highlights the importance of C3 processes in patient care and the future impact of innovation and research in our state.

“We were one of the first hospitals in Canada to establish a command center within our healthcare system, rapidly transforming Nova Scotia Health’s culture of innovation,” said Grant. “C3 is generating massive amounts of real-time operational data, and Nova Scotia Health and Innovation creates endless research opportunities within the ecosystem.”