InEDvance: Advanced IT in support of emergency department management

Emergency Departments (ED) are highly dynamic environments comprising complex multi-dimensional patient-care processes. In recent decades, there has been increased pressure to improve ED services, while taking into account various aspects such as clinical quality, operational efficiency, and cost performance. Unfortunately, the information systems in today's EDs cannot access the data required to provide a holistic view of the ED in a complete and timely fashion. What does exist is a set of disjoint information systems that provide some of the required data, without any additional structured tools to manage the ED processes. We present a concept for the design of an IT system that provides advanced management functionality to the ED. The system is composed of three major layers: data collection, analytics, and the user interface. The data collection layer integrates the IT systems that already exist in the ED and newly introduced systems such as sensor-based patient tracking. The analytics component combines methods and algorithms that turn the data into valuable knowledge. An advanced user interface serves as a tool to help make intelligent decisions based on that knowledge. We also describe several scenarios that demonstrate the use and impact of such a system on ED management. Such a system can be implemented in gradual stages, enabling incremental and ongoing improvements in managing the ED care processes. The multi-disciplinary vision presented here is based on the authors' extensive experience and their collective records of accomplishment in emergency departments, business optimization, and the development of IT systems.