The Emergency Department constitutes one of the main gateways to healthcare services, with over 20 million visits annually in Italy alone. However, its management is particularly complex due to the high number of requests and variations in processes and accesses. Despite evident progress in patient care during emergencies, managing the Emergency Department remains one of the main challenges in the hospital sector, especially regarding overcrowding and reducing waiting times.
Over the past two years, marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, managing separate pathways for Covid, non-Covid, and mixed patients has further complicated the flow logistics, exacerbating pre-existing difficulties. This emergency within an emergency has pushed the sector to adopt new technologies and managerial methods, such as Lean and BPI, which have contributed and continue to contribute to improving Emergency Department management.
However, such innovations are still partial and heterogeneous due to regional paradigm differences and local peculiarities. Therefore, it is increasingly necessary to create conditions for continuous exchange of best practices and consolidate innovations developed during critical periods. The goal is to evolve the management models of the Emergency Department and the emergency-urgency network.
To address this challenge, LOPS was created, the first educational network of managerial innovation dedicated to Emergency Department management. LOPS represents both a meeting and discussion place for professionals and a unique opportunity for the development of frontier managerial knowledge and skills. This occurs through targeted insights and with the support and guidance of the SDA Bocconi faculty.
12/12/2023 – The “KPS”: Detecting and Monitoring to Redesign Processes
The day spent with SDA Bocconi was extremely productive, providing a valuable space for discussion among clinical and managerial professionals in the Emergency Department. During this meeting, TapMyLife had the opportunity to emphasize the crucial importance of “data quality” as a fundamental requirement for defining effective KPIs, essential for a management conscious of the need to optimize processes in such a delicate and critical context as the Emergency Department.
The emergence of a hospital logistics function equipped with management and measurement tools that go beyond the mere “clinical” scope, while remaining consistent and interoperable, becomes a fundamental strategic choice for operational management that takes medical needs into account. The discussion highlighted the need for an integrated approach that harmonizes the clinical perspective with the managerial one, thus contributing to shaping a more efficient and outcome-oriented operational environment.
We wish to thank Professor Francesca Lecci and Professor Lorenzo Fenech for involving us and for their commendable commitment to promoting an enriching exchange of ideas between clinical and managerial professionals. The growth-enhancing contamination between these two perspectives represents a significant step towards integrated and quality-oriented management in the complex context of the Emergency Department.
