Asante transfer and admit functions just got “smarter”

Asante’s bed-management workflows take another leap forward this month when the new Asante Command Center opens on Aug. 30.

The center, located in the office buildings at 2620 E. Barnett Road, Suite H, will be the new home of the growing Asante Transfer Admit Center and virtual patient monitoring functions.

It’s a “smart” operations center, which means it collects operational and clinical data in real-time from a single location.

“It acts as the central hub for all major decision-making related to the health system’s daily operations,” says Jodi Arth, a nurse with Edgility, the platform Asante partners with to help manage capacity.

The Asante Transfer Admit Center opened in 2012 to serve ARRMC’s bed planning and management needs. Over the past 11 years, the Asante Transfer Admit Center has evolved into a system-level department that serves all three hospitals.

In addition to bed planning and management, TAC participates in patient-load balancing across Asante, as well as working with regional and statewide requests to transfer into the Asante hospitals.

Operations grow

With the new location (in the Asante office buildings at the corner of Barnett Road and Black Oak Drive) operations will see some growth.

TAC is recruiting additional team members to support the important work it is responsible for. As the team grows, it will have the bandwidth to take on additional responsibilities. For example, TAC teams will develop workflows that support the ownership of patients who need to transfer out of the Asante system.

TAC is also actively recruiting for a patient flow coordinator who will help manage capacity throughout the system. This includes moving patients between hospitals and coordinating aspects of timely discharge.

The Asante Transfer Admit Center will continue to work with providers and others to provide bed planning, bed management and transfer services to ensure the greatest efficiency. TAC can be reached by all the same modes of communication that are currently being used.

To Andrew Young, MD, the transfer center’s first medical director, this move is an important step in Asante’s long-range plan to enhance capacity, throughput and access to care.

“The Transfer Admit Center has shown incredible growth and amazing performance over the past two years,” he says. “The staff deserves a well-designed operational space to carry out the important work we do for the system. This also signifies our systematic thinking and thoughtful approach to our work.”

Staci Sparks, vice president of Nursing, agrees. “This small but mighty team has expanded to a robust service line that is critical to Asante. They care deeply about ensuring patients have a bed when they need one and are devoted to providing exceptional customer service, often in a profoundly resource-constrained environment. I am so proud of how far we have come!”

ARRMC’s virtual patient safety monitor team also will join TAC in the new Asante Command Center, although some staff members initially will remain on-site at ARRMC to support the transition.

We encourage anyone interested to stop by the new location after its Aug. 30 move-in date.