System Throughput

System Throughput, also called Bed Management, is responsible for getting the right patient into the right bed at the right time, from the day patients enter the hospital until discharge. Beds are a critical resource, particularly in specialty areas, such as the intensive care and intermediate care stepdown units. System Throughput functions 24/7 to improve bed utilization and reduce waiting time for patients.

Centralized Bed Management optimizes Mount Sinai Health System’s capacity and resources by standardizing processes and providing real-time situational awareness. All patient movement, bed assignments, and requests are electronically submitted to our bed planners. Electronic dashboards, reports, and heads-up displays provide transparency to the points of entry and departments with which we coordinate.

Points of Entry

At the Mount Sinai Health System, patients are admitted to our inpatient beds from a wide variety of entry points. These include:

  • Cardiac catheterization lab
  • Direct admissions
  • Electrophysiology lab
  • Emergency room
  • Endoscopy
  • Labor and delivery
  • Imaging department
  • Interventional radiology
  • Operating room
  • Outside the Health System (inter-hospital transfers)
  • Other hospitals within the Health System (called intra-hospital transfers)

We manage beds at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, Mount Sinai Brooklyn, Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital, Mount Sinai Morningside, Mount Sinai Queens, Mount Sinai West, and The Mount Sinai Hospital.

Collaborations

Our team members include highly skilled registered nurses and administrative professionals. We also collaborate closely with personnel throughout the Health System, including:

  • Admitting and Patient Access Services: To coordinate direct admissions and private room accommodations, and provide additional support for Admission, Discharge, and Transfers in the Electronic Medical Record.
  • Attending and Front Line Providers: To ensure patient requests are appropriately accommodated based on specialty, service, level of care, and bed type needed
  • Emergency Medicine: To facilitate admissions from the Emergency Department
  • Engineering: To coordinate the routine maintenance of all room closures
  • Environmental Services: To prioritize bed-cleaning requests
  • Infection Prevention: To prevent risk and ensure compliance with all required isolation precautions
  • Institute for Critical Care Medicine: To coordinate admissions and transfers for seriously and critically ill patients
  • Nursing: To collaborate with the Nursing Department to ensure patient care, patient experience, and quality measures are maintained
  • Patient Financial Services: To validate patient authorization and accommodation
  • Patient Service Centers: To help improve the patient experience
  • Patient Transfer Center: To accommodate all inter-hospital and intra-hospital transfer requests
  • Perioperative Services: To facilitate optimal patient throughput from procedural areas to inpatient nursing units
  • Projects, Design, and Construction: To arrange room closures for renovations and expansions
  • Transportation Department: To expedite transportation requests

Services We Provide

By improving our efficiency in accommodating patients, we accomplish a number of goals, such as:

  • Ensuring the right care to the right patient at the right time with the appropriate resources
  • Improving patient outcomes
  • Increasing patient satisfaction
  • Decreasing length of hospital stay
  • Enhancing resource use