“Just in time” is not exactly the way most people would describe a decision as all-encompassing as implementing an AI-driven “command center” in a multi-site, 1,300-bed health system, but it apparently sums up what came to pass, last year, at Washington State’s 12-hospital CHI Franciscan.

According to our colleague Bill Siwicki at HealthcareIT News, in August 2019, “CHI Franciscan partnered with GE Healthcare to launch the state's first Mission Control Command Center to enhance patient safety, seamlessly manage patient flow, schedule procedures, and ultimately get patients home sooner.”

Six months later, COVID-19 happened.

The good news was that by the time CHI Franciscan was in the throes of managing the crush of the pandemic, they had already begun using AI algorithms to identify potential issues in real time and allow care teams to synchronize all elements of a patient's hospital experience, proactively solving problems to improve care rather than react when issues arise, explained Ketul Patel, the system’s CEO.

"CHI Franciscan's foresight with Mission Control helped it manage critical elements during an unprecedented pandemic when Washington became one of the country's first epicenters for the COVID-19 outbreak in February 2020," Patel noted. “Challenged with managing the quickly evolving situation, CHI Franciscan needed a full picture of capacity and resources available across the system – including critical staff, inpatient beds and ventilators – as well as real-time intelligence on COVID-19-positive and suspected COVID-19-positive patients at all facilities.”

Among the COVID-related capabilities the new Center offered the 12-hospital system are the abilities to track and share the level of critical resources such as ventilators available across the system in real time, monitor bed availability, track every at-risk patient to ensure they were in the safest location possible, and provide staff with all the information available on patients so they were prepared and could use the necessary PPE and other precautions.

As Patel explained, "Through Mission Control, CHI Franciscan team members were able to make higher-quality and faster decisions with real-time information and visibility into operations across all sites. The integrated platform, which consolidates and standardizes data in one central place, provides key information on items like patients boarding in EDs and PACUs, delays in care related to labs or imaging, and patients in the various stages of transferring across the health system.”

Beyond playing a key role in helping CHI Franciscan manage its COVID crush, since August 2019, the Mission Control team has created 1,423 additional days to care for more patients, expedited treatment for 142 critical care patients, mitigated 68 patient surgeries, maintained a 10% reduction in bed request turnaround times, and enabled 561 patients to leave the hospital more quickly.

"This type of technology investment is good for any leaders looking for a way to optimize operations and efficiencies within healthcare," Patel summed up the impact of the investment. "The high-powered and transparent analytics, and centralized and standardized processes, make this a scalable solution for improving care delivery.”