MiPart initiative will increase access to inpatient beds at UMHS

Access to our inpatient beds is becoming more challenging as we continue to grow and target an increase in complex care. In the past year, we have denied transfers and cancelled surgeries due to our lack of available inpatient capacity and often our patients experience significant wait times in our system.

What are we going to do?

The University of Michigan Health System has launched a strategic initiative aimed at maximizing our existing capacity and optimizing our patient flow to better serve our patients and the community.

MiPART – Michigan Patient Arrival & Rapid Throughput – is comprised of five separate, but interconnected programs developed to address these issues:

• Priority Discharge: Prioritize a targeted number of discharges per unit and service, per day, to reduce the mid-day peak in census and increase bed availability in the morning to align with patient demand.
• Patient Placement Decision Making: Design and simplify the patient placement algorithm to align bed mix to match patient needs and improve the service assignment/acceptance process.
• Bed Management Structure: Create a centralized function – with standardization of roles – that has authority over patient flow decisions with full visibility to current and projected inpatient and observation demand as well as bed availability.
• Decision-to-Admit to Occupy: Streamline, improve while decreasing non-value added time from the decision to admit until a patient occupies a bed (all admission sources), thus reducing total cycle time (service assignment excluded).
• Optimal Inpatient Operating Room Scheduling: Manage Cardiac and Neuro ICU admissions from the procedural areas by coordinating the scheduling efforts; effectively balance planned bed consumption both day-to-day and week-to-week.

MiPART’s program teams, guided by Health System leaders and staff, will collaborate over the next year and a half to improve the patient experience and throughput, while maintaining the highest levels of safety and quality. This work, in partnership with efforts from Care Management and Population Health, will support the ultimate goal of improving access for our patients, getting them to the right beds, at the right time, the first time.

What can we expect from MiPART?

An interdisciplinary, cross-functional assembly of Health System leadership has convened to create a streamlined decision-making body which empowers each team’s success. The Capacity Governance Committee has approved the following key performance indicators which we expect to improve throughout the initiative and sustain well beyond the formal engagement.

Want to learn more?

We encourage you to learn more about MiPART. To explore the mission of each team, view team member rosters or provide feedback, please visit our new website at http://www.med.umich.edu/i/mipart/.

Please check the site often to view monthly newsletters and progress reports to see how we are improving the care we deliver to our patients and celebrate our successes with us!