Insights & Solutions

This webinar highlights the University of Michigan Medical Center’s journey to address this challenge. In 2012, their hospital and ED leadership hypothesized that creating a dedicated unit in the ED for the provision of extended critical care would help meet some of these challenges, which in turn may improve care delivery and patient outcomes. Pre-determined guiding principles were carefully followed throughout the design and build phases. From start to finish, the project utilized key lean facilities design principles including the use of full-scale mock-ups. This led to a finished build that was completed ahead of schedule, under budget and with no significant change orders.  

Learn about: Ellis Medicine’s struggle to service a higher ED volume after two local hospitals closed their doors; why the new ED was initially unable to meet the high patient demand; and how a transitional unit, a split-flow model, and other strategic design choices ultimately helped improve ED throughput.

This tool provides healthcare designers and professionals with ED throughput principles/goals and how environmental, operational, and people measures can be implemented to achieve said goal. Download the tool by clicking the purple bar above.

The following are compiled from research literature, case studies, interviews, and other materials to provide an overview on the topic of emergency department throughput.  

Learn about: methods to minimize patient wait times and maximize use of hospital space, guiding principles implemented in a Seattle children’s hospital to improve patient and provider communication, and how architects, healthcare providers, and families can collaborate to design a patient-centered emergency department.