Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in the US has inaugurated a centralised ‘Mission Control Center’ that aims to coordinate care for hospital and behavioural health patients across Oregon.
The move is the first time since OHSU’s coordination effort began in 2017 that all its technology and teams have been consolidated in one location.
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OHSU said the Covid-19 pandemic prompted the expansion of its original Mission Control concept, which initially only monitored OHSU Health’s bed and resource capacity but now facilitates data sharing across various health systems in Oregon.
The Mission Control Center will manage OHSU Health’s capacity while also incorporating the Oregon Medical Coordination Center (OMCC) and the Oregon Behavioral Health Coordination Center (OBCC).
OMCC and OBCC aim to use real-time data about available hospital beds and critical care services to ensure patients can receive the treatment they need.
This has become more important as OHSU has faced healthcare resource and staffing challenges in recent years.
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By GlobalDataOHSU capacity management and patient flow senior associate chief medical officer Matthias Merkel said: “Mission Control data and teams not only get patients care they need, they’ve also been critical in helping clinicians, health leaders and policymakers better allocate resources during public health emergencies.
“These coordination efforts are an important investment for the health of Oregonians.”
OHSU said it had been able to acquire technology and establish physical space for staff through state and federal funding, as well as its collaborations with GE HealthCare and Blackbox Healthcare Solutions.
The university initially partnered with GE HealthCare in 2017, adopting real-time analytics for hospital operations and coordinating care across its partner hospitals.
During the pandemic, OHSU worked with GE HealthCare, Oregon Health Authority and other health entities to create a ‘capacity tracking tool’ that could centralise information sharing and improve the coordination of critical care resources.
This system developed into the Oregon Capacity System, which is now operated by Apprise Health Insights.
