CHOPtimization

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  Title Slide

Smoothing the flow of patients in and out of hospitals can help reduce overcrowding, prevent poor handoffs, and can avoid delays, all of which affect the patient’s experience at the hospital. Our project focuses on optimizing patients flow at CHOP, reducing the time it takes for a patient to arrive at the emergency room and then be seen by a doctor. Our goal is to decrease the wait time for patients and improve the customer experience patients have at the hospital. Right now, the process is not very transparent and patients are not given an estimated wait time. With our predictive algorithm, we are able to map the available beds in the emergency room and give the charge nurse and estimate for how long patients will be waiting. We began by creating an algorithm that takes in a set of inputs from the charge nurse and then outputs an estimated wait time for the patients. The inputs include the patient's name, age, and severity of diagnosis, all of which determine how long their wait time will be. We made sure to incorporate the fact that higher severity patients will need to be seen first and also the current availability of beds and when those patients currently in the emergency room will be discharged. This will help improve the ER experience for both nurses and patients.