A Modern Approach to Patient Assignment: Q+A with Northwell’s Nocturnists

In the early mornings, before most start their workday, Northwell South Shore University Hospital’s nocturnists are working away creating the daily rounding lists, adding an increasing amount of manual burden to their already busy day.  

Maneuvering through routine issues surrounding patient assignment hindered the team from being able to operate efficiently and effectively. This, in turn, negatively impacted patient safety and provider satisfaction.  

Dr. Rosenthal recognized it was time to make a change, one that would reinstate productivity and optimize their current process. Dive into an interview with two South Shore University Hospital’s doctors, Dr. Sharma and Dr. Rosenthal, who talk about why conducting patient assignments with pen, paper, and an Excel spreadsheet wasn’t enough. Discover how Medaptus’ Assign solution allowed them to regain control over their hospital’s priorities, remedy their pain points and automate their workflows to improve physician workload and reduce burnout.  

Malachi: Amidst seeing patients and ensuring anyone who gets admitted are taken care of, what were some of your core responsibilities/issues before implementing the Medaptus Assign Solution? 

Dr. Rosenthal: As our census grew and the number of rounders and admitters grew, we outgrew our processes of manually assigning patients in the morning. We knew we had to identify a solution that would assist with workflow efficiency and patient safety.  

It was hard to keep track of where patients were especially as the week went on and patients were moving between departments. Providers also complained about having to round on patients in multiple buildings. Before we figured out a process that worked well for our hospital, Nocturnists had to rush between seeing patients themselves and going back to their list-making duties. Starting at day before the sun came up to create the daily rounding lists was not ideal and as the volume of patients coming in increased, as did the number of rounders and admitters, making the manual process unsustainable.  

Malachi: By using our Assign software to automate the patient rounding/distribution lists, you were able to improve continuity of care, improve physician workload and reduce burnout. How did the further impact the level of productivity at Northwell? 

Dr. Rosenthal: With our old manual way, we had to type out all the admissions, figure out which provider was going to be going with which patient, based on what the end of day census was and if there were any secondary needs to consider (such as the patient needing to be discharged that day, or a family issue, or if they needed to stay with a certain provider). 

After all the patients were assigned, that would get emailed to our logistics person who would make manual changes, then get that information into our EMR. But there’s also a time lag when the email is sent and the patients are updated in the system, so nurses would have to call the doctors and try to figure out who needed to be seen by who.  

Dr. Sharma: You help us ensure continuity of care and that the right people get assigned to the right patients. Now, Assign automates all that- making it happen faster, more efficiently, and allowing us to preserve considerations that we could never do manually, such as preserving continuity of care and geography”  

Malachi: Thank you both for sharing your insights. We are happy to have been able to work alongside your organization.