At the Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH), in the center of their campus in Baltimore, Maryland, is a room with walls made of 22 high-resolution screens. Numbers, charts and live video flash across them as about 24 staff members from different departments scan the screens and make quick decisions to prevent or resolve bottlenecks, reduce patient wait time, coordinate services and reduce risk. During a typical afternoon, the system receives about 500 messages per minute from 14 different Johns Hopkins IT systems generating real-time data to trigger action throughout the hospital.
The technology in the Capacity Command Center — designed and built by GE Healthcare Partners — keeps staff members informed 24/7 about when there is an influx of patients coming into the hospital, which hospital units need additional staff members, the status of how many patients are being treated, the need for and availability of beds across the hospital, the highest-priority admissions and discharges, and other information essential for ensuring high-quality patient care. Since it opened earlier this year, representatives from 50 health systems across the US and from four countries have visited the new Capacity Command Center.