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What This New Mission Control Means if You’re a Patient

November 21, 2017

In a renovated space on the Newington campus, registered nurses sit behind computer screens monitoring and regulating the flow of patients in, out and through Hartford HealthCare’s acute-care hospitals.

They might hear this when the phone rings on a typical day:

An in-patient at MidState needs to be wheeled from his room to the CT scanner.

A stroke patient in the Backus emergency room needs a critical care bed at Hartford Hospital.

An elderly patient with a severe respiratory infection needs the level of care best delivered in the intensive care unit at the Hospital of Central Connecticut.

In each case, the needed services are dispatched quickly and the patients are transported to the location for the care they need, thanks to the staff and technology at the new Hartford HealthCare Transfer Center.

The center is supported by communications and analytics technology through HHC’s innovative partnership with GE Health. It works like a NASA mission control center, handling questions about bed availability and patient movement across our hospitals. The idea is to get every patient to the right place for the right care at the right time – and with the right team.

When fully operational, the center is expected to manage about 600 transfers a month. Ideally, it will improve the patient experience by efficiently moving patients to units or even other hospitals where available clinicians are awaiting their arrival.

The center also will facilitate transfers from non-HHC hospitals and community physicians’ offices. With the ability to instantly share and transmit patient data, LIFE STAR can be queued to transfer a critically ill patient from a referring hospital.

“The new center truly helps us achieve our vision to be most trusted for personalized, coordinated care,’’ said Beth Ciotti, vice president for Hartford HealthCare care logistics at HHC. “With one call, clinicians and patients inside and outside HHC get instant access to our vast and deep network of distinguished specialists. Patients can be routed to the most appropriate place for the care they need, reducing delays, improving convenience and leading to better outcomes.’’

Interested in learning more? Visit the Hartford HealthCare Transfer Center.