Yale New Haven Hospital, a 1541-bed organization that is part of Yale New Haven Health System, has created a Capacity Command Center to connect real-time data analytics with key services.

The CCC was developed with the Yale New Haven Health Clinical Redesign initiative, the hospital’s in-house analytics staff and Epic.

The center emerged from the hospital’s “High-Reliability Initiative,” and also from the leadership and staff commitment to improving all aspects of patient care. The hospital provides care for highest patient volumes in Connecticut.

“Through the CCC, we’re using the enormous amounts of data available from Epic and other sources to improve care, safety and the patient experience,” Ohm Deshpande, MD, director of Utilization Review and Clinical Redesign at the hospital, said in a statement.

The center takes the huge amounts of operational data generated by the Epic EHR and generates dashboards to keep nurses, physicians and administrators up to date on changing conditions in real time.

“Yale New Haven Hospital cares for the most complicated patients in our region,” added Richard D’Aquila, president of Yale New Haven Hospital and Yale New Haven Health. “The Command Center’s people, processes and data infrastructure will allow us to gain real-time insight into our operations, keep the patient at the center of all that we do, and enhance our ability to provide the highest value care.”

The dashboards show a variety of real-time metrics such as bed capacity, bed cleaning turnaround time, patient transport times, delays for procedures and tests, ambulatory utilization and quality and safety indicators. The stats are visible on the command center screens as well as accessible through Epic by physicians and staff.

The increased access to data has already driven process changes. For example, the infection prevention staff can identify all patients in the hospital with Foley catheters, review their charts, and consult with nurses and physicians about removing the catheters to avoid catheter-associated urinary tract infections.

The hospital is five years into a plan aimed at increasing its reliability. YNHH leaders figure a shared set of cultural values will boost safety, quality and patient-centered care.

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