title: Visual cues keep treatment team alert.
abstract: At Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach, FL, a throughput initiative that uses colored magnets to indicate anticipated discharges has cut emergency department holding time and increased the number of discharges by 2 p.m. The charge nurse, case manager, and discharge planner meet daily, make their best clinical guess about the patient's discharge and place a red, yellow, or green magnet on a white board at the nurses station. When team members pass the board, they are alerted to anticipated discharges and know to make patients with a green magnet a priority. The case managers and nurses write the expected discharge on a white board in the patient rooms and initiate a discussion with patients and family members to prepare them for discharge.
mesh_terms: D003463:Cues; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005431:Florida; D006801:Humans; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D010351:Patient Discharge