Patient Movement

"Patient movement" is about how information flow supports healthcare flow.

Many healthcare encounters include transitions between teams and locations. Complex encounters can have multiple overlapping transitions. A trauma patient can, for example, have tasks distributed among emergency, critical care, operating room, ward, interventional diagnostics and other teams. Each may have focus for a period of time, with context-specific orders, measures and workflows. Each context (e.g. Pre-Admission Clinic, Intra-procedure, Recovery, operating room, ICU) may reflect a different “Phase of Care”.

The Connect Care clinical information system (CIS) can help coordinate care across person, place and time. It has tools (navigators, order sets, plans, etc.) that facilitate patient movement. Orders are especially transition-sensitive because they can be phase-of-care-tagged to ensure that they are activated in the right location and context.

More Information

There is no simple workflow that addresses all transitions. Different tips help if, for example, a patient is admitted from the emergency room, or from an outpatient clinic, or from a hospital outpatient department. Some care transitions are addressed in sub-sections:

• • Direct Admissions

  • Expected Discharge Date

  • Phases of Care

  • Intensive Care Flows

  • Surgical Flows

  • Inter-Facility Transfers

  • ED to ED Transfers

  • Leave of Absence

  • Alternate Level of Care

  • Home Care

  • Discharge as Deceased

  • Pandemic Surge Patient Flows

Resources

The following resources compile guidance about patient movement and care transitions. Prescribers should focus on transitions that they most frequently encounter; being be sure to review just the relevant bits of the Patient Movement Guide. The Guide is very long. The first few pages allow the user to select a 'from' and a 'to' context and so jump to the relevant section of the Guide.

• Guide: Patient Movement

• Infographic: Patient Movement Support