The Arnold Palmer Hospital (APH) in Orlando, FL is one of the busiest and most respected hospitals for the medical treatment of children and women in the United States Since its opening on golfing legend Arnold Palmer’s birthday September 10, 1989, more than 1.5 million children and women have passed through its doors. It is the fourth busiest labor and delivery hospital in the United States and the largest neonatal intensive care unit in the Southeast, and APH ranks fifth out of 5,000 hospitals nationwide in patient satisfaction.

“Part of the reason for APH’s success,” says Executive Director Kathy Swanson, “ is the our continuous improvement process. Our goal is 100% patient satisfaction. But getting there means constantly examing and reexaming everything we do, from patient flow, to cleanliness, to layout spaces, to colors on the walls, to speed of medication delivery from pharmacy to patient. Continuous improvements is a huge and never ending task.”.

One of the tools the process flow chart. Staffer Diane Bowles, who carries the “Clinical Practice Improvement Consultant” charts scores of processes. Bowles’s flowcharts help study ways to improve the turnaround of a vacated room (especially important in a hospital that has operated at 130% of capacity for years), speed up the admission process, and deliver warm meals warm.

Lately, APH has been examining the flow of maternity patients (and their paperwork) from the moment they enter the hospital until they are discharged, hopefully with their healthy baby a day or two later. The flow of maternity patients follows these steps:

1. Enter APH’s Labor and Delivery check-in desk entrance.
2. If the baby is born en route or if birth is imminent, the mother and baby are taken by elevator and registered and admitted directly at bedside. They are then taken to a Labor and Delivery Triage room on the 8th floor