Using computer technology in the automation of clinical and operating systems in emergency medicine.

The practical application of Emergency Medicine throughout the country has historically been viewed by healthcare workers and patients as one of inefficiency and chaos. Believing that the practice of Emergency Medicine was, to the contrary, predictable, we at Ochsner felt that tremendous improvements in efficiency could be won if the vast amount of data generated in our experience of nearly 40,000 Emergency Department visits per year could be harvested. Such improvements would require the employment of computer technology and powerful database management systems. By applying these tools to profile the practice of Emergency Medicine in our institution, we were able to harvest important clinical and operational information that was ultimately used to improve department efficiency and productivity.The ability to analyze data and manage processes within the Emergency Department allowed us to target resources much more efficiently, significantly reducing nonproductive work. The collected data were sorted and filtered by a host of variables creating the ability to profile subsets of our practice-most importantly, physician practice habits and performance. Furthermore, the development of "patient tracking" software allowed us to update, view, and trend data in real-time and tweak clinical and operational processes simultaneously. The data-driven, analytical approach to the management of the Emergency Department has yielded significant improvements in service to our patients and lower operational costs.