Unique “Bed Traffic Control” system enables AdventHealth ERs to help patients faster

Time is critical in emergency care. AdventHealth emergency rooms in Central Florida cared for more than 650-thousand people in 2022. At any given moment multiple patients come to those ERs through their front doors, by ambulance, or even by helicopter. So, organization is a key. To help keep patient intake moving smoothly, AdventHealth’s emergency services pioneered a unique system called, “Bed Traffic Control.”

“It helps our team know immediately where that patient is going (and) they’re going have a bed immediately,” says Shelby Mills, a senior nurse manager at AdventHealth Orlando.

“It helps patients get seen faster,” Jordan Pallotta, assistant nurse manager at AdventHealth East Orlando, says the system streamlines the patient care process.

Bed Traffic Control centralizes the patient intake process by having one team member communicating with everyone sending or bringing patients to the ER. “You have multiple screens on each computer open. You’re on the phone. The radios going off with a call from EMS. Several chats (are) going on,” Pallotta says.

Mills compares the system to a busy airport. “It’s kind of like the ground traffic controllers at an airport,” she said. “They’re directing where all the planes are going, where they are landing and what gates they’re going go to and it’s a very similar concept that we use here.”

Bed Traffic Control began in AdventHealth Orlando’s ER. It is now being used throughout AdventHealth’s system of eight hospital-based emergency departments.