Vascular ultrasound exams are a crucial tool for emergency care and rapid turnaround time is essential. Communication, coordination, and a dedicated vascular lab are necessary for preventing delays. Mint Medical partnered with a Level 1 Trauma Center located in California to improve processes and eliminate delays without additional staff or costs.
Emergency room physicians were experiencing delays in obtaining vascular ultrasound studies. Fragmented communication between the emergency department and the non-invasive vascular lab had significant impacts. These included prolonged emergency department stays, delayed diagnoses, provider frustration, and potentially unnecessary emergency department admissions.
The Challenge
Non-invasive vascular ultrasound is an essential component of emergency care. Better patient outcomes depend not only on diagnostic accuracy, but rapid turnaround times. In the case of this Level 1 Trauma Center, vascular ultrasound orders from the emergency department, intensive care unit, and urgent care lacked a real-time coordination pathway with the vascular lab.
Clinicians faced unpredictable vascular exam wait times due to a lack of visibility into vascular technologist availability and expected turnaround. This resulted in delayed treatment decisions and bottlenecks in patient throughput.
The Solution
It became clear that a solution needed to be found quickly to improve patient care and reduce frustration. Mint Medical identified the root cause and designed a communication-driven workflow.
The improvement involved a two-part process. First, a dedicated secure group chat was created within the hospital messaging system connecting the NIL scheduling team, vascular technologists, and clinicians across emergency department, intensive care unit, and urgent care. This provided real-time ETA updates and direct accountability.
Second, the Mint Medical Site Supervisor began attending the hospital’s bimonthly Clinical Operations Meeting, ensuring ongoing alignment with emergency department leadership and immediate resolution of any workflow issues.
The Outcomes
Thanks to the dedication of stakeholders within the Trauma Center and Mint Medical, the workflow improvement was a success. Outcomes included:
- <60 minutes consistent vascular ultrasound response time
- Improved emergency department throughput and patient flow
- Reduced prolonged emergency department stays and unnecessary admissions
- Zero recurring vascular lab delay issues reported post-implementation
The Associate Medical Director at the Department of Emergency Medicine thanked Mint Medical for the assistance, stating:
“We deeply appreciate the continued support and collaboration from the Vascular Lab. Ultimately, we are all trying to provide timely and quality patient care.”
Mint Medical was able to establish successful communication workflows, increase collaboration, and reduce delays. Our team demonstrated the following operational capabilities:
- Rapid-Response Vascular Imaging
- Proactive Operational Engagement
- Communication-Driven Workflow
- Scalable Process Improvement
When the Trauma Center faced emergency department throughput challenges, our onsite team diagnosed the problem, designed the fix, and implemented it at no additional cost.
Mint Medical provides hands-on collaborative process evaluation and improvement for all our hospital and clinic partners. We don’t just staff vascular labs, we own the operational outcomes. This is what a dedicated vascular partner looks like: embedded leadership, proactive problem-solving, and measurable results. For more information on how Mint Medical can help your organization increase vascular lab throughput, contact us today!
Guest Contributor: Jordan Galerkin
