Because seconds count in an emergency, Titusville wanted to ensure its emergency department was as efficient as possible for the five counties it serves in rural Pennsylvania. With the closest hospital and emergency room more than a 40-minute drive away and with limited capacity, the hospital plays a crucial role in the community.
To learn more about Titusville Area Hospital’s initiative, Healthy Me PA went straight to the source. Brenda Burnett, the chief nursing officer at Titusville, explained how the program came about.
“We began to look at our data, and we realized that, compared to other hospitals, our ER time was much higher,” Brenda said. “And we were looking at patient satisfaction and could see the common frustrations that were happening. We knew that we needed to improve in order to make the time people spent in the ER shorter, [and to make sure] they were seen quicker and their turnaround times would be quicker to get them home sooner.”
Holli Wolfe, director of marketing, community relations, and foundation, said, “Because Titusville is a Critical Access Hospital, we are much smaller and capacity is limited. We average about 10,000 patients a year, and because of our location, people rely on us in any type of emergency situation.”
To address concerns, Titusville implemented new processes and new means of monitoring those processes. This way, the hospital staff can track improvements and continue making changes to enhance services.
“Implementing change can always be difficult, but we stressed the importance of the need to get the patients in the ER with our physicians and stressed the importance with our imaging staff and triage area, as well, to become more efficient all around,” Brenda said.
Lee Clinton, CEO at Titusville, said, “Our rural area is really a small community. The people that work here live here, so it wasn’t that we really even needed to convince our staff to get onboard because they care about the community and the people who come for our help.”
Since the start of this initiative in 2016, Titusville has seen a significant reduction in the time it takes for someone who arrives at the emergency room to see a doctor—also called door-to-doc time. In fact, Titusville’s door-to-doc time is now below the national average.
In addition, 99 percent of patients seen in the emergency department report that they would recommend Titusville to a friend, with the overall patient satisfaction score at 98 percent.
It’s initiatives like this that show what a difference a hospital can make in the community. Through teamwork, combined with education and cooperation throughout the hospital staff, Titusville demonstrates how to make positive changes to help the people it serves.