Care Facilitation Division goes live

On July 1, the new Care Facilitation Division in the Georgia Regents Medical Center embarked on an initiative to redesign their current care management services, and its administrative director, Gregory Oliver, said the division promises to bring more efficiency to the way the hospital interacts with patients, families and physicians.

The new Care Facilitation Division was created through the Philips partnership and encompasses case management, social work, utilization review and bed management.

One of the keys to ensuring a better patient experience is the creation of the nurse care coordinator, a new role aimed at creating a more proactive approach to facilitate patient care and patient flow throughout their episode of care.

“In today’s world at GRU, the functions of discharge planning, utilization review and patient placement are separate,” Oliver said. “This leads to a disconnect among functions and a lack of a global view of the patient’s episode of care resulting in inefficiencies in the planning process, progression of care and payor communications.”

Upon admission, the care coordinator will see a patient at the beside and interview that person in order to assess needs so that the patient has a safe and efficient discharge as well as correspond with payors to ensure authorization. Consequently, that new, more individualized care should translate into a better experience for the patient with a clear understanding of his/her financial responsibility.

“It will help improve our patient satisfaction and quality of care,” Oliver said. “This is because the patient has a single point of contact who possesses the clinical and financial knowledge associated with their current hospital stay with the goal being to restore the patient to the highest level of health as efficiently and quick as possible”.

Oliver said this more collaborative approach represents a move away from traditional management practices and toward a more proactive approach to the planning of patient care.