Therapist assistant, Lauren Goodman, and physiotherapist, Christine Cabellero, use a colour-coded multidisciplinary readiness summary on Connect Care’s “Traffic Lights” feature to determine if patients are ready for discharge at Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre. (Heather Kipling)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

innovation

Connect Care’s Traffic Lights tool improving patient outcomes at Red Deer Regional Hospital

Sep 19, 2023 | 10:48 AM

An innovative tool is enhancing both patient outcomes and the ability for staff to work more collaboratively at Red Deer Regional Hospital (RDRH).

Connect Care, and specifically the Traffic Lights tool, were implemented in Red Deer last November. Over a number of years, Connect Care has come online to allow health care workers across the province easier access to patient health records.

Specifically, the Traffic Lights tool is a colour-coded multidisciplinary readiness summary, used by hospital staff to determine how close or far a patient is from being discharged.

It has cut emergency department stays for admitted patients from 52 hours down to just 28, says Carmen Petersen, a nurse at RDRH since 1990, and director of adult critical care and inpatient medicine.

“We need to have the ability to get patients up to our inpatient units and out of the ER so they’re where they can get care from the appropriate team,” explains Petersen.

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“If a physician has a question about a patient, they can go in and see at which point we’re at on the patient’s journey. It’s red if they are still very acute and need to be in hospital, or it’s yellow if there are still some barriers but they’re progressing. Physicians can understand those barriers better and we can focus on them.”

Petersen says the longer patients find themselves waiting around, perhaps ready to go home, there’s increased risk of infection, and they needlessly lose more muscle mass.

“This helps us get patients back to where they need to be in the safety and comfort of their own home,” she says. “It’s also much easier than having to flip through a paper chart.”

This of course helps alleviate the much-publicized bed crunch at Red Deer Regional, she acknowledges.

“We all know this hospital needs redevelopment and that’s happening, but it won’t be tomorrow. So between now and then, we have accountability to provide the care,” she says. “It’s incumbent on us to make sure we are as effective as can possibly be. We’re not perfect, but we’re doing the best we can by leveraging every tool we have available to us.”

Redevelopment and expansion is in the design phase, and is expected to increase the number of beds from 370 to 570, with a new inpatient tower, among other things.

Carmen Petersen is a nurse at Red Deer Regional, and director of adult critical care and inpatient medicine. (AHS)

Among other things such as mental health supports for youth in crisis, and inter-facility ambulances, the hospital has come a long way as far as the innovative methods and equipment it has available to use, Petersen adds.

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“It goes back to accountability, and the responsibility we have as the regional centre to make sure we have the ability to look after the sickest patients in our zone,” says Petersen.

“To do that, we must ensure we’re moving things forward, and doing things effectively and safely. It’s really important we own that accountability.”

Prior to the computerized Connect Care system’s implementation, estimated dates of discharge (EDDs) were being achieved about 30 to 35 per cent of the time, Petersen shares. EDDs are routinely given to a patient within 48 hours of being admitted.

Now, hospital staff are achieving estimated discharge dates at a rate of 95 to 99 per cent.