Post by Epic

At multi-hospital organizations, charge nurses and unit floor staff oftentimes need to spend valuable time calling around to find beds for incoming transfers. Meanwhile, patients waiting for a bed from the ED can face increased delays due to limited capacity in heavily populated areas. When patient flow breaks down, it leads to care delays and an increased burden for staff members. Last year, Sutter Health opened a centralized command center to coordinate patient flow for three of its hospitals. Using Epic’s Grand Central Capacity Management dashboard, they work to match waiting patients with beds in nearby hospitals to provide the right level of care while balancing capacity across the organization. Since launching in early 2025, the three hospitals experienced a 27% reduction in excess length-of-stay days—the equivalent of 12 additional beds per day. Also, despite increased volume, they sped up emergency department arrival-to-departure time by 8%, helping patients get the care they need sooner. Sutter continues to expand the model to the other hospitals in their system. Great work, Sutter!