Children’s Mercy Kansas City, GE HealthCare Launch Nation’s First Pediatric Hospital Operations Center to Improve Patient Care

Children’s Mercy Kansas City, a leading independent children’s health organization, announced the launch of the Patient Progression Hub – a hospital operations center that uses artificial intelligence (AI), predictive analytics and real-time information to optimize care progression and coordination from the time a patient’s admission is requested until discharged.

Children’s Mercy is the first freestanding pediatric hospital in the nation to collaborate with GE HealthCare to embed this state-of-the-art technology in its operations to improve access, streamline the flow of patients, enhance discharge planning, improve staffing needs, and forecast patient demand.

“With the activation of the Patient Progression Hub, Children’s Mercy will be at the forefront of 
technology-enabled innovation in patient flow, quality outcomes and safety,” said Paul Kempinski, MS, FACHE, President and Chief Executive Officer, Children’s Mercy. “By maximizing the use of actionable, 
real-time, and predictive data, we will improve the experience of our patients, families and team members alike.”

The 6,000-square foot hub, inspired by NASA’s mission control center, houses a video wall with customized analytic apps, or “tiles” to monitor and manage the flow of patients. The system uses AI algorithms to identify potential issues, enabling care teams to proactively solve problems before they arise.

“Our goal is to make it easier for Children’s Mercy to orchestrate daily patient care, which in the end means it’s that much easier to answer the crucial question: can you accept this child,” said Jeff Terry, CEO, Command Centers at GE HealthCare. “The Patient Progression Hub combines several existing teams into a new center-of-gravity for patient access and supports throughput and quality care delivery. GE HealthCare is proud to provide its “Command Center” software which is used in the Hub and across Children’s Mercy.”

Hub team members are co-located in the space to facilitate greater communication and collaboration, break down bottlenecks and barriers, and increase satisfaction for both patients and employees.

“Prior to implementation, the organization relied on manual processes and often retrospective data to understand patient census and anticipate discharges,” said Jodi Coombs, MBA, BSN, RN, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Children’s Mercy. “Now we have visibility into operations across the entire system to make faster and smarter complex decisions as soon as vital workflows change. The Patient Progression Hub journey enables endless possibilities for using real-time data to drive actions that deliver excellent patient care and supports our team members.”

The Patient Progression Hub enables improvements such as:

Managing right bed, right place, on time – Centralizing bed placement allows staff to manage bed assignment workflow, prioritize bed placement, and place external/intra-system transfers in a timely manner.

Avoiding unnecessary delays – Real-time data allows staff to address potential delays, such as reducing time patients wait in the Emergency Department or the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) for an inpatient bed to be available.

Improving staffing – AI predicts patient census levels 24 and 48 hours in advance with a high degree of accuracy. By predicting future demand, staffing needs can be filled, assuring patients are cared for by the appropriate care teams.

Streamlining discharge process – Real-time data and predictive analytics track each patient’s journey, enabling staff to prioritize tests, procedures and medicines to get the patient discharged in a timely manner and open a bed for another patient who needs it.

“Most patients and families won’t even know the command center exists, but they will significantly feel the impact – less waiting around for a bed and getting discharged quicker so they can go home that much sooner,” said Robert Lane, MD, MS, Executive Vice President and Physician-in-Chief. “Making better informed decisions leads to better outcomes for our patients, families and our staff.”