Emergency Access and Flow Leader - Emergency Access and Flow

One of Canada's Best Diversity Employers and Greater Toronto's Top Employers for many consecutive years, William Osler Health System (Osler) provides a safe and supportive health care network to grow your career. Osler is nationally recognized for its commitment to patient safety and is Accredited with Exemplary Standing, the highest rating a Canadian hospital can receive. As a major Ontario hospital system, and home to some of the biggest specialty and emergency departments in the country, Osler serves the 1.3 million residents of Brampton, Etobicoke and surrounding communities. We are proud to offer you incredible exposure to best-in-class health care delivery and challenging hands-on opportunities to stay at the top of your game.

A hospital system built for and by the community, we continue to expand our services to meet the needs of a growing population, creating opportunities for increased hands-on skills development, cross-department training and promotional opportunities. Guided by our accomplished senior leadership team, together we are driving our vision of patient-inspired health care without boundaries.

At Osler, we invest in careers that go beyond where health care professionals like you can achieve their goals and find deep personal and professional fulfillment. Join our team today!

Access and Flow Leaders primarily facilitate the flow of patients in order to maximize patient throughput by placing the right patient into the right bed in the right time.  The Access and Flow Leader identifies and addresses processes and or issues that may impede patient flow.  This role acts as a resource to high risk patients who require co ordination and navigation through services to achieve outcomes consistent with best practice and assists the organization in achieving corporate, HCC and MOHLTC targets for access and flow outcomes.

Accountabilities:

• Functions as the primary facilitator of daily patient flow
• Provides direction and coordination of admissions, discharges and transfers and has knowledge of current bed availability across the entire hospital.
• Facilitates appropriate and timely transfers between units.
• In collaboration with the Admitting department, regularly reviews preferred accommodation bed requests and follows up with the units to ensure accommodations are achieved whenever possible.
• Coordinates and facilitates repatriation following established repatriation guidelines and communicates with resource Nurses regarding repatriation admissions
• Liaises with Critical Care, Paediatrics, Maternal Child, Mental Health and Addictions and other specialty areas that arrange their own repatriations and utilizes this information to make appropriate placement decisions.
• Provides direction to Admitting/Bed Clerk as needed to expedite bed assignments.
• Communicates with physicians/hospitalists related to patient placement and throughput issues as identified prior to or following the Bed Meeting
• Liaises with the Transitional Care Coordinators (TCC) and external health care providers, including Home and Community Care Coordinators, to proactively facilitate resource and opportunities to improve patient experience by reducing length of stay.
• Collaborates with TCC and Resource Nurses to facilitate timely discharges
• Collaborates with the Patient Care Units and Environmental Service Partners to prioritize cleaning of rooms based on need
• Conducts regular rounds in the Emergency Department (ED), to facilitate the smooth transition of potential and unscheduled admissions so that bed placements are timely.
• Conducts regular rounds on all nursing units to maintain visibility, continuously tracks and determines alternate options for bed placements to mitigate congestion in ED and other admitting sources
• Maintains overall cognizance of the current hospital activity level and the activity within 24 hours with consistent communication to all nursing unit contacts (Team Leaders, Resource Nurses and CSMs) and brings issues regarding their patients, units and flow to their attention as soon as possible
• Lead bed meetings twice on days, once on nights and as needed.
• Initiates “Bed Alerts”, as required and creates and sends electronic bed management updates
• Identifies pre-gridlock status and utilizes the Bed Allocation and Corporate Gridlock policies, to identify and develop appropriate strategies to prevent or mitigate gridlock.
• Provides coordination, supervision and leadership during all stages of gridlock.
• For shifts worked beyond the regular weekday shift, the following are additional key accountabilities and responsibilities:
  • Walk-abouts – conducts ongoing rounds in all patient care areas and works with clinical and support service department to expedite issue resolution and optimize efficiency
  • Resolving operational issues that have been escalated from the resource nurse/charge nurse
  • Resolving patient complaints, staff and visitor issues that have been escalated from the resource nurse/charge nurse
  • Develop and enhance staff leadership through coaching and support
  • Coaches staff in the use of resources and protocols/policies to assist with decision making
  • Help ensure a safe and risk adverse environment for patients and staff
  • Optimize resource utilization (including staffing resources) within the organization, re-organizing staff where appropriate to ensure safe and efficient workflow
  • Serves as a resource to the type of patient that each unit can accept and the level of care provided on each unit type
  • Supports and acts as a resource for all hospital emergencies by enacting Emergency Preparedness policies and standard operating procedures
  • Escalate issues to the administrative director on-call where appropriate
  • Follow up with manager/directors on any relevant issues

Emergency Department Access and Flow Focused Responsibilities:

In collaboration with the Clinical Services Managers, Clinical Directors, Resource Nurses, Clinicians, Physicians Corporate Access and Flow Leaders and Admitting Department, the Emergency Department (ED) Access and Flow leader coordinates seamless patient-focused ED flow, while maximizing the utilization and allocation of resources within the ED. The ED Access and Flow Leader identifies and addresses processes/barriers that impede patient flow by utilizing the Operational Command Centre Dashboards, in collaboration with all stakeholders.  In order to facilitate the above, the ED Access and Flow leader,

• Liaises with the Corporate Access and Flow leaders, Surgical Access and Flow leader, Admitting Department, Diagnostic imaging, inpatient units and outpatient clinics to facilitate seamless patient flow
• Coordinates patient flow through the ED, to support improved Physician Initial Assessment(PIA) times, ambulance off load, and time to inpatient bed
• Identifies and liaises with the most responsible physicians (MRP’s) to remove system barriers to patient flow
• Acts as a flow navigator to ensure timely discharge appointments and non-urgent transportation to facilitate discharges
• Review and respond, in real time, to clinical indicators for patient care delays
• In collaboration with the Admitting and Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) teams, supports the prioritization of isolation re-assessments and bed allocation to support patient flow
• In collaboration with the Cardiology program and Corporate Access and Flow, ensures timely re-assessments of telemetry/cardiology needs
• Facilitates eTOA completion and escalation within the ED
• Collaborates with key stakeholders, such as the Osler GO Team, for admission avoidance opportunities
• Collaborates with the GO Team to help facilitate discharges or resources that can support “up front’ patient care while waiting for an inpatient bed
• Strategizes with key stakeholders to prioritize placement of admitted patients, with a focus on patients who have exceeded the time to inpatient bed target
• Supports modified Bullet Rounds in the ED for admitted patients in collaboration with the Osler GO Team
• Attends daily Bed Management Meetings to support organizational patient flow and planning
• Collaborates with Physicians and Resource Nurses to facilitate and manage admitted and non-admitted patient flow and surge through the ED
• Collaborates with Corporate Access and Flow, inpatient units and Environmental Services to prioritize cleaning of rooms/stretchers based on urgency and priority
• Collaborates with the Emergency Department leadership team to identify, explore and implement strategies to meet patient flow targets, including but not limited to process / workflow improvement with the ED. 

• Regulated Health Professional in good standing with their college or have a BScN and equivalent experience in the acute health care or Emergency Department (ED)
• Masters prepared is preferred
• Post graduate diploma in Utilization Management is an asset
• Minimum 5 years recent acute care and/or ED experience
• Two years experience in a progressive leadership role
• Previous experience in utilization review is an asset

Hours: Days/Evenings/Nights, including weekends and statutory holidays (subject to change in accordance with operational requirements)

Internal application deadline: October 15, 2024

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Osler values inclusivity and diversity in the workplace. We welcome and encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds. We are committed to providing accessible employment practices that are in compliance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. If you require an accommodation at any stage of the recruitment process, please notify Human Resources at [email protected].

While we thank all applicants, only those selected for an interview will be contacted. Any information obtained during the course of recruitment will be used for employment recruitment purposes only, and not for any other purpose.