Providing care close to home.
It’s the mantra that drives decision-making at MyMichigan Health, and it’s what drove the organization to build a state-of-the-art Emergency Department in Bay City.
“We noticed that some of our emergency patients were traveling from Bay City over to Midland for care and our administrative team made the decision that we should put an emergency in the area to help facilitate health care in Bay County,” says Deanna Knopp, System Director for Emergency Services at MyMichigan Health.
The
MyMichigan Health Emergency Department in Bay City, located on Kiesel Road, provides accessible emergency care to Bay County residents living west of the Saginaw River. Fully-licensed and credentialed, the 15-bed facility provides 24/7 services.
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Fully-licensed and credentialed, the 15-bed MyMichigan Health Emergency Department in Bay City provides 24/7 services. (Photo courtesy of MyMichigan Health)While it’s one thing to identify a need in a community and create a solution to meet that need, there’s always a question of whether people will accept that solution. Though getting the word out about the new facility and making the public aware of its capabilities has been a challenge, the community has shown that it was ready for this new addition.
“The Bay City Emergency Department, for its size, has grown significantly more than we anticipated,” says Knopp. “We passed our five-year projected volume in the first five months.”
However, high patient volume has not had a negative impact on patient wait times. In fact, despite long Emergency Department wait times across the country, this Bay City facility almost never has a wait time for patient care.
While the methodology for accomplishing this feat is complex, there are four factors that have played heavily into it: the building’s design, length-of-stay goals, staff experience, and technology.
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The facility was designed to make care efficient and reduce wasted time. The Emergency Department is fully licensed and credentialed. (Photo courtesy of MyMichigan Health)“We took 200 years of ER experience with ER providers, ER managers, and ER staff; so, seven of our emergency rooms participated in this design,” says Knopp. “We asked, ‘What works well in your emergency room? What doesn’t work well in your emergency room?’ So it was really designed.”
The facility was designed to make care efficient and reduce wasted time. Additionally, it was equipped with specialized rooms for mental health patients who are at risk of harming themselves or others.
“Those rooms have curtains on the outside so we can monitor the patients from outside the room, but still have the visual aspect of watching the patients to keep them safe,” says Karen Solomon, Manager of MyMichigan Health Bay City’s Emergency Department. “We also have garage doors that go over all of the extra equipment that you would need for another type of patient so that room can be used for more critical patient if they're not in a situation where they're wanting to cause themselves harm.”
From the very beginning, a length-of-stay goal was created that everyone is aware of and working to achieve, while still maintaining the highest standard of care. That goal is to get patients who are designated as ESI-4 (Emergency Severity Index), who don’t require as many tests, in and out in 90 minutes; and for patients who have more medically complex needs the goal is to complete their care in 120 minutes. With the state’s average wait time alone – not including care – standing at
153 minutes, it may have seemed like a lofty goal; but, the staff has proven it possible.
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The lobby at MyMichigan Health Emergency Department provides a comfortable and attract space for patients and families. (Photo courtesy of MyMichigan Health)“We've met that goal every single month that we've been open except for the first three weeks,” says Solomon.
Some may question whether that speed and efficiency comes at the cost of patient care; however, patient satisfaction surveys, which are given as the patient is discharging, have shown that is not the case. Data from those surveys was compiled by
Professional Research Consultants (PRC).
“You get a raw score, and then that raw score is ranked against other ERs, and we’ve been in the 100
th percentile since opening,” says Knopp.
Knopp and Solomon say much of that success is thanks to the staff that was hired. When the facility opened, many seasoned ER providers and nurses were hired because they knew how to provide patients with the highest quality of care in an efficient manner.
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The MyMichigan Health Emergency Department in Bay City, located on Kiesel Road, provides accessible emergency care to Bay County residents living west of the Saginaw River. (Photo courtesy of MyMichigan Health)Additionally, the facility has used technological advancements to their advantage, including “Wait at Home.” Knopp says the Bay City Emergency Department is the first in the MyMichigan Health system to use this online check-in option.
“This concept that we learned early-on, primarily through COVID, is that patients don't want to be in rooms with a lot of sick people. They want to be in and out because they don't want to get that extra exposure,” she says. “So, when we were building and looking at throughput, we started looking at ‘How can we manage when we have high volume? How can we look at waiting at home instead of waiting in a waiting room?”
Patients who are not having life-threatening emergencies can MyMichigan’s website or their MyChart app to see about how long it’s currently taking from the time patients register at the Emergency Department to the time they are taken back to a room. If, for example, there’s currently an hour wait, patients will be given the option to wait at home for that duration and come in at their assigned “estimated time of arrival.”
“The Wait at Home option has been received well, but now it’s time to put it to the test in a higher-volume Emergency Department with longer wait times,” says Knopp. “So, we will be rolling that out in Midland’s Emergency Department next.”
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The lobby at MyMichigan Health Emergency Department provides a comfortable and attract space for patients and families. (Photo courtesy of MyMichigan Health)Providers at MyMichigan’s Emergency Department in Bay City also use telemedicine to help their patients receive specialized care as needed – accessing the plethora of specialists throughout the MyMichigan Health system when, for example, a patient having a stroke is being transferred to Midland or a patient needs a consultation with a psychiatrist while they wait for placement.
Additionally, being co-located with
MyMichigan Health Park Bay has provided a wonderful partnership, especially for patients admitted to the ER who didn’t have a family doctor.
“We're able to establish them someplace in the system right away to get them further testing and further outpatient care,” says Solomon. “The Health Park provides a lot of that, and they're working on getting more providers as well.”
As the Emergency Department is now in its second year, Knopp and Solomon say they look forward to continuing to build on the community relationships they’ve started and continuing to serve the residents of Bay County.
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MyMichigan Health drew on 200 years of experience from its providers, managers, and staff from seven different locations to design the most-efficient space possible in Bay City. (Photo courtesy of MyMichigan Health)“We were welcomed into the community. We work well with the established entities in Bay County, and I would say we’re a well-received service,” says Knopp. “ It’s been a pleasure to serve Bay County residents.”