Transferring neurology patients to Barnes-Jewish Hospital has become a smoother task for outside hospitals, thanks in part to the leadership of Operations Manager Adrienne Ford, of the Neuroscience Center at the hospital.
Functioning as the business manager for the department, she works to streamline processes for better patient experiences; something she says is a hospital-wide initiative incorporating the Lean method used by Toyota and other manufacturers, in a health care setting.
“We had an outside consulting company come in and help us try to bring some of the principles, philosophies and to help be more efficient in the hospital setting,” Ford said.
Neuroscience includes an administrative call center, neurodiagnostic and telemedicine services, as well as a sleep lab. Ford said the Neuroscience Department is also streamlining the experience for patients, who have a team of people assigned to their care.
“We’ve been using that philosophy to help us improve patient care by reducing length of stay with unnecessary patient days, where things that were not of value to the patient were extending their stay,” Ford said.
For stroke patients, the goal is get the patients to the right BJC hospital for treatment, based on the severity of the condition.
“A lot of times we have stroke patients in different areas that they end up getting transferred to us but sometimes it is beneficial to that patient to get treatment at their local facility,” Ford said.
“We’ve worked with them on different stroke protocols and then we put a telemedicine robot that can actually be controlled by the doctors here at our hospital and be moved around through the hospital, and they have the camera and can view the patient and the patient can see them. And so they can actually do a basic assessment of the patient to see how severe their stroke state is and then they can advise the doctor at that hospital about next steps.”
Related to that is the time it used to take for hospitals to transfer neuroscience patients to BJH.
“Originally when an outside hospital would call in, they would have to talk to multiple people – a phone call would be 20-30 minutes, and they’re just trying to get someone transferred in,” she said.
Ford led a team that analyzed the process for a quicker solution.
“We saw it was very inefficient, and eventually – the outside hospital – they are not just calling us, they are calling other facilities, so whoever accepts the patient faster is going to get the patient. And we weren’t fast at all.” Ford said. “We eliminated how much time the outside hospitals would call.”
She said outside hospitals now make one call.
“They talk to one physician that’s conferenced-in and then we moved a lot of those phone calls to the background and so we are handling those calls in between ourselves and not having the outside hospitals talk to five different people,” Ford said.
“We’ve gotten a lot of great feedback from outside hospitals that it’s a lot easier to transfer patients into our facility, a lot less headache and a lot more customer-friendly.”
The Dallas native first came to St. Louis in 2002 to attend Washington University, where she received a bachelor’s in psychology, women and gender studies.
“Originally when I was in college I was in pre-med and I’ve always been really interested in the sciences and the medical field,” Ford said.
Her mother is a nurse which sparked her interest in health care.
“As I was getting involved in premed, it wasn’t as much fun as I thought it would be but I knew wanted to be involved in healthcare,” Ford said. “I started taking courses in contemporary women’s health and in healthcare economics. I realized that there is a whole other side to healthcare – the business side.”
She worked in New York as an administrative intern for a few months in 2008 at Blythedale Children’s Hospital, focusing on research and analysis of legislative issues pertaining to special needs children.
Ford earned a master’s of public health in health management and policy at the University of Michigan in 2009 and returned to St. Louis because of what it and BJH had to offer.
“I applied to different programs and I decided to come to Barnes-Jewish Hospital because I was aware of their prestige,” Ford said.
She went to work at BJH in July 2009 on a David A. Gee BJH Administrative Fellowship, where she received executive leadership training, participated in the Joint Commission survey process and visited Capitol Hill with BJC government affairs officials. Rotations through key clinical and ancillary areas gave Ford a better understanding of hospital operations.
Ford also serves as a project coordinator for the BJC Stroke Integrated Practice Unit, which is looking into a standardized stroke care across their hospitals.
“We are also trying to look at half of our patients are transferred to facilities – most neuroscience patients don’t go home – they usually end up going to another facility,” Ford explained.
Stroke awareness
Stroke awareness and the prevalence of strokes in the community is a concern for neuroscience.
“Everyone is aware of a heart attack – you know, if you feel pain in your chest or your arm , people immediately think, okay – heart attack, let me get to an ED and let me call an ambulance,” she said.
“But when you have a stroke, there’s not just one symptom that says it’s a stroke. A lot of times, you feel tired or lethargic or you just think, ‘Just let me go to sleep or let me sleep it off,’ which is exactly what you shouldn’t be doing.”
A bigger push around stroke awareness could help save lives.
“And it’s like little things you don’t think are a big deal. And a lot of times when people think it’s a stroke, they want to drive themselves in,” Ford said. “Don’t do that. If you really think it’s a stroke, you need to call an ambulance.”
Ford is a co-founder and treasurer for the St. Louis chapter of the National Association of Healthcare Service Executives. She is a member of the Young Professional Network Leadership 100 of the Regional Business Council; the United Way Charmaine Chapman Society and serves as a volunteer on the United Way Allocations Panel for Metro East Disabilities Services. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and attends Church on the Rock West County campus.
