With the opening of Penn Medicine’s newly renovated and expanded Capacity Management Center earlier this year, transferring patients into HUP, Penn Presbyterian, and Pennsylvania Hospital became a faster and more efficient process. And, as it turned out, the improvement came just in time to handle the COVID surge.
Indeed, during the height of the pandemic in Philadelphia, many COVID-positive patients were transferred into one of the three city hospitals — from hospitals within the Health System as well as from others in Philadelphia and outside of the state, including many from North Jersey. “We saved many lives,” said Joseph Moffa, MSN, BS, clinical director of the Penn Medicine Transfer Center and HUP Patient Flow
COVID changed some standardized procedures. For instance, while previously the Transfer Center only called the attending physician receiving the patient, now the chief of that department and a physician from Infectious Diseases are on the call as well, confirming that the patient needs to be transferred and also the best place to bring the patient. “It helps control capacity and keep the front line staff safe,” Moffa said.
The Center’s renovation brought all the departments needed to successfully complete transfers to one centralized location on Silverstein 1. This includes PennSTAR, Bed Management, EVS, and Transport. The upgrade also added state-of-the-art technology to the transfer process, such as three big screens at each workstation for easier access to multiple patient information dashboards, such as Penn Chart.
Both Moffa and Alexandra Cosan, MSN, associate clinical director of the HUP Capacity Management Center, give their staff kudos for their flexibility in adapting to the frequent process changes while keeping the flow of patients running smoothly. While transfers of non-COVID patients decreased during the pandemic’s peak surge in Philadelphia, the numbers are already starting to rise. And the Center is at the ready as HUP continues its work to define a "new normal" after the pandemic.