PROJECT 03 · PREPARED FOR LEADERSHIP REVIEW

Patient Flow & Throughput Improvement

A proposed practice-improvement framework supporting clearer behavioral health transitions, communication, and care coordination across the patient journey.

The challenge The solution Resources Next steps

The challenge

Patient flow crosses teams, locations, and care processes.

Behavioral health admissions, transfers, treatment transitions, and discharge planning may involve nursing, providers, the Emergency Department, registration, care coordination, and other clinical partners. Each handoff creates an opportunity to clarify responsibilities, improve information continuity, and make the next step easier to understand.

Improvement opportunity

Make the patient journey and critical handoffs more visible so leadership and interdisciplinary teams can identify where standardization or clearer coordination may be helpful.

Why it matters

Safety & continuity

Support accurate information exchange as patients move between settings and levels of care.

Clarity & readiness

Help teams understand the next step, required preparation, and responsible partners.

Resource stewardship

Create a foundation for future review of patient movement, capacity, and care-transition processes.

These are potential areas of value. No achieved improvement is claimed.

The proposed solution

Make the full patient journey visible.

Use a shared patient-flow framework, workflow comparison, and proposed measurement plan to support interdisciplinary discussion about handoffs, transfer coordination, role clarity, and future improvement priorities.

My contribution / nursing leadership

Developing and organizing patient-flow concepts, workflow maps, communication priorities, and proposed measurement strategies using frontline behavioral health nursing insight.

Current stage

Concept development and preliminary visual materials prepared for leadership review. Workflow validation, stakeholder alignment, implementation planning, and outcome evaluation remain pending.

Patient journey

The right step at the right time

The patient-flow roadmap follows the continuum from referral and assessment through admission, treatment, transition, and discharge or the next level of care. It is a visual framework for discussing clarity, coordination, and continuity—not a report of operational performance.

Referral / Entry→Assess→Admit→Treat→Transition→Discharge / Next Level

Patient journeyPatient Flow — The Right Step at the Right Time

A six-stage view of the behavioral health care journey designed to support discussion of clarity, coordination, and continuity.

Proposed patient-flow frameworkView full size ↗

Design principlesClarity · Coordination · Continuity

Three principles guide the proposed framework: make the next step understandable, connect the right partners, and support continuity across transitions.

Framework for discussion

Workflow improvement

Current-state and future-state concepts

The available workflow deck contains two planning concepts. Its digital-intake workflow overlaps with Project 2 Intake Excellence. The Behavioral Health → Emergency Department → Behavioral Health transfer comparison is retained here because it directly supports Project 3’s transition and continuity focus.

Transfer pathway conceptBehavioral Health → ED → Behavioral Health

Compares a discharge/readmission pathway with a proposed interrupted-stay concept intended for operational and regulatory review.

Validation and interdisciplinary review requiredView full size ↗Planning deck · 2 slidesCurrent-State vs. Future-State Workflow Concepts

Includes a digital-intake concept related to Project 2 and a BH–ED–BH transfer concept related to Project 3. Neither represents an approved or implemented workflow.

Cross-project planning resourceOpen PowerPoint ↗

Reviewer note

The proposed interrupted-stay and same-encounter concepts require leadership, registration, regulatory, compliance, informatics, and interdisciplinary validation before any operational use.

Available materials

Earlier planning artifactPatient Flow & Throughput A3 Executive Summary

Summarizes the preliminary problem statement, goal, root-cause themes, strategy, deliverables, anticipated value, and future vision.

Status statements require leadership validationView full size ↗

Binder portfolio artifactProject 3 Section Divider

Establishes the project purpose and three focus areas: safer transitions, operational coordination, and throughput improvement.

Portfolio identity resourceView full size ↗

Patient-flow resourcePatient Journey Infographic

Visualizes the continuum from referral through discharge or the next level of care.

Prepared for leadership reviewView full size ↗

Workflow resourceBH–ED–BH Transfer Comparison

A preliminary current-versus-future transfer concept for interdisciplinary discussion.

Not approved or implementedView full size ↗

Artifact interpretation

The earlier A3 uses planning labels such as “completed,” “in progress,” “pilot ready,” and “expected outcomes.” On this website, those labels are not treated as verified implementation status or measured results.

Measurement plan

Establish a baseline before reporting impact.

Process

Transfer steps, handoff completion, transition readiness, and identified workflow barriers.

Coordination

Staff feedback, role clarity, communication gaps, and interdisciplinary review findings.

Operations

Verified timestamps, patient-flow visibility, and bed-utilization measures selected with leadership.

Proposed measures

Baseline and outcome data are pending. The illustrative ROI/time-savings dashboard is withheld because its estimates have not been validated with local baseline data.

ADD VERIFIED BASELINE DATA ADD VERIFIED OUTCOME DATA

Current status

Project concept and preliminary visual materials are prepared for leadership review.

Outcome measurement pending

Workflow validation, stakeholder alignment, baseline measurement, implementation planning, and evaluation have not yet been completed. No time savings, throughput improvement, bed-utilization result, regulatory improvement, or organizational endorsement is claimed.

Next steps

Review the patient-flow framework and clarify Project 3 scope with nursing leadership.
Separate Project 3 transfer and transition work from Project 2 Intake Excellence where workflows overlap.
Validate the current-state transfer workflow with involved departments.
Identify nursing, provider, ED, registration, quality, compliance, informatics, and care-coordination stakeholders as appropriate.
Select one limited improvement opportunity and establish verified baseline measures.
Refine workflow tools after leadership guidance and add verified dashboards and outcomes in a future update.