The vision
The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania faced increasing inpatient demand and insufficient hospital medicine provider capacity. This resulted in excessive emergency department (ED) backlogs and daily challenges accommodating transfers, ICU downgrades, and observation upgrades. Leaders knew they needed more providers and new care team models to meet demand and provide a superior practice and learning environment.
Co-creating the solution
The health system partnered with Chartis to create a vision and roadmap for a patient-centric care model. The team created a data-driven demand model to support capacity planning, including variations in daily and seasonal demand. Leaders surveyed 10 peer institutions to learn how the organization of similar hospital medicine programs enabled them to balance clinical and academic missions while improving patient throughput and care team experience. The team designed, tested, and implemented changes—including an ED-based admitting team, innovative provider coverage models, and geo-cohorted teams. In-person multidisciplinary rounds also improved communication, collaboration, and satisfaction.
Believe in better
Hospital medicine and health system leaders are now aligned on a vision and implementation roadmap. Actionable strategies will expedite care progression for ED admits and enable flexing during peak census. Alignment across enterprise and physician leadership is enabling key decisions for coverage models and workforce deployment—supporting sustained transformation that effectively meets community needs.
