Precise planning propels transition to Indianapolis campus

When most of us move to a new home, we take off work or close the office, ask a friend or two to do the same. Life is in flux for days as we get by with the essentials of clean sheets on the bed and a coffee maker and toaster on the kitchen counter top. A lot of things can wait until later to be unpacked.

But when you move a hospital, certain things can’t wait, including patients needing care. For Franciscan St. Francis Health, a move of this scale isn’t completed overnight.

To keep hospital services uninterrupted during the transfer of all inpatient services, surgical services, and the emergency department from the Beech Grove to the Indianapolis campus, a committee of hospital directors and managers has met for more than a year leading up to the March move.

Early on, an independent consulting company helped the committee establish milestones for subcommittees, each addressing specific concerns, including: patient care, support services, IT and marketing.

Since the opening of the new patient tower and emergency room in April 2011, the move to the Indianapolis campus has been slow but steady; recent moves have involved the Breast Center, Endoscopy and Ambulatory Surgery, Volunteer Services and Service Excellence to name but a few.The moving process will ramp up considerably, however, over a two-week period in March, said Matt Pierce, R.N., clinical process manager.

“The final plans continue to evolve, and need minor adjusting,” he said, “and we continue to work closely with departments and units, which all have been helpful and cooperative throughout the process.”

Plans have required that the transition committee not only look at the move of patients and equipment but also consider staff coverage of the units and the supplies and staff for support services.

As for the transfer of patients, fewer is better, and the move plan calls for all new inpatient admissions to cease at Beech Grove on Monday, March 12. This will lower the number of patients needing to be transferred between March 12 and 16. Pierce estimates that between 40 and 50 patients will need to be taken by ambulance from Beech Grove to Indianapolis during this transition week.