Integration with intention

How integrated clinical programs help reduce delays, enhance outcomes, and improve patient experience 

Transitioning a patient from your emergency department to your hospitalist team can sometimes prove challenging. A lack of clear communication among clinicians can leave patients feeling uneasy and uncertain. It can also put them at immediate risk—research shows that nearly 60% of medication errors happen during this period.  

Integrating your emergency and hospital medicine programs can make a huge difference in mitigating messy handoffs. Just ask Dr. Mihir Patel and Dr. Tony Briningstool, chief executive officers of their respective clinical programs with Sound Physicians—hospital medicine and emergency medicine.  

In a Becker’s webinar sponsored by Sound, Drs. Patel and Briningstool explain why integrated programs work for clinicians and patients alike, and offer four key takeaways to consider when thinking about integrating your emergency and hospital medicine teams: 

1. Joint accountability: Emergency medicine clinicians and hospitalists have a joint responsibility in seeing their patient through an acute care episode, and with the expectation to do more with less time and resources, working together can positively impact patient care. 
2. Identifying misalignment: The misalignment of people, process, and technology is the most common obstacle when it comes to successfully integrating emergency and hospital medicine. 
3. Intentional workflows: You have to be intentional about integration—training, performance reviews, and establishing key performance indicators are foundational to success.  
4. Innovation matters: Best practices and new approaches go a long way to transforming those patient transitions of care. 

Want to take a deeper dive into integrated care? Read the full webinar recap. Or watch the on-demand webinar.