New Operations Center at UH Cleveland Medical Center Positions Us for Success Post-Pandemic

An update from Robyn Strosaker, MD, COO, UH Cleveland Medical Center

UHCMC Quarterly Update | May 2021

Robyn Strosaker, MD

The past several months have been one of the busiest and most challenging times in memory for all of us at UH Cleveland Medical Center. You all know this very well and have risen to the challenge. As we’ve cared for the continued influx of patients from the COVID-19 pandemic, our inpatient volumes for non-COVID-19 patients and surgical patients have also been very high, requiring our caregivers to respond to unprecedented challenges when it comes to staffing. I thank you for all your efforts over the past few months. You have all worked very hard, and through your efforts, UH Cleveland Medical Center is now positioned to successfully rebound from COVID-19.

As we start to move on from the COVID-19 pandemic, we are mobilizing to meet a new challenge: discharging at least 50 percent of our patients by 2 p.m. every day. Our new Operations Center at UH Cleveland Medical Center (CMCOC) is a valuable resource that will help us all achieve this. It brings together a patient flow team, a care coordination team, as well as our nursing and medical staff leadership, all working together daily to drive efficient and timely throughput of our patients. Being together in the same location facilitates the communication needed to meet our aims. When patients are discharged by 2 p.m., it creates a win-win for both us and for our patients. It ensures that we create access to accommodate patients who need care that can only be provided at CMC from our operating rooms, as well as for patients being transferred from other hospitals or arriving on our floors from the ED. Patients also benefit from being discharged to home in a timely way earlier in the day.

We will succeed with this new initiative through every member of the UH Cleveland Medical Center team being on the same page, with the same goal in mind. Please reach out to your manager about how you can use the resource of the CMCOC in your important daily work.