How one military officer initiated a 'culture overhaul' in a failing ER through data utilization

by John W. Mitchell, Senior Correspondent | March 02, 2016

Emergency Medicine Health IT Population Health

Too many non-urgent patients

No incentive to see more patients

Administration counts beans; they don’t move beans

This is socialized (military) medicine, it’s supposed to be slow.

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The results of his culture reinvention were epic. From 2010 through 2014, patients who left without being seen dropped from nearly 500 a year to less than 10. The patient length of stay in the ER dropped 29 percent. And the door-to-see-the-doctor time dropped 78 percent. This achievement placed the ER at Keesler Medical Center not just the best in the military, but among the best performance metrics in the entire hospital sector.

Pocreva said that in addition to relying on the emerging capability of electronic patient medical records, he also made the most important resource a priority: his people.

“I appealed to why people go into medicine in the first place,” he said. “And that’s to take care of people, and in our case, to serve our country. Once you get people to remember their core values, the spark returns.”

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