Emergency Medicine Case Studies

A small hospital emergency medicine team struggled to implement protocols to satisfy the Sepsis bundle. Sound's medical director saw an opportunity to involve hospital leadership and clinicians in aligning and tightening the timing of processes to meet the complicated algorithm and demanding documentation for sepsis compliance. Through these changes, sepsis compliance improved by 65% within the first year, and within two years, the hospital was among the top 10% in sepsis compliance in the nation. See how they did it.

Patients at a large southern medical center faced excessive hold times in the emergency department (ED) before being admitted to inpatient beds. In response, Sound’s Hospital Medicine (HM) and Emergency Medicine (EM) teams collaborated to develop strategies to reduce these delays. Sound teams communicated through a secure messaging platform, conducted daily rounds to address care barriers, and downgraded patients needing less intensive care. This teamwork shortened hold times and improved patient flow, trust, and morale among staff.

A southeast medical center was facing a growing number of patients leaving their ED without treatment and rising length of stay. Sound's EM medical director proposed a proactive solution to increase ED nursing staff to implement a split-flow or rapid-care model to assess the acuity of patients to get patients seen faster. The split-flow model rapidly improved door-to-clinician time, increasing patient flow and satisfaction. Within months, the hospital saw LWOTs decrease, discharge LOS and admit LOS improve, as well as, capturing more revenue per patient with patients staying to get treatment.

A community hospital faced various challenges in coordinating care between its adult and pediatric emergency departments, such as siloed care, declining throughput metrics, staffing vacancies, and a flat-rate compensation model. Collaborating with Sound Physicians, the hospital addressed staffing challenges and redesigned patient care, improving length of stay in both EDs, patient satisfaction, and reducing overall admit length of stay.

With the success at another hospital, a hospital in the same system transitioned their emergency and hospital medicine programs to Sound Physicians. Despite typical challenges moving from an employed to an outsourced model, Sound and the hospital implemented a successful transition with a tight timeline over the holidays. Within six months of implementation, the hospital has a fully staffed team, and clinician satisfaction and patient care improved.

In this hospital, Sound's integrated solution brings together hospital medicine, emergency medicine, and critical care to put the patient at the center of care. This integrated approach has led to reduced decision to admit times, reduced ED door-to-provider times, and reduced ED LWBS.