1. RESULTS
Patient transport at Beth Israel’s Petrie Division was handed
to Crothall in the final quarter of 2014, beginning an intense
period of reorganization that created favorable impressions
within and beyond its walls. Trips per productive hour rose from a
dismal 0.84 in the third quarter of 2014 to a sustained high above
3, rising occasionally to 3.46. Efficiency has spurred growth in
the transport department, with positions being added as other
departments are frozen and budgets remain low.
“Crothall has a great reputation for responding to an
urgent need in health care beyond traditional business
models, and they added to their success here,” said Nympha
Meindel, Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer
of Mount Sinai Beth Israel. “We had a great team full of
passionate, motivated people from the start and they talk to
every single employee in all the departments so they know
they’re making the right choices.”
MOUNT SINAI BETH ISR AEL - PETRIE DIVISON
CROTHALL HEALTHCARE PATIENT TRANSPORT DIVISION HAS REDEFINED “PATIENT EXPERIENCE”
IN HOSPITAL SETTINGS, WITH PROCESSES THAT BUILD VALUE INTO EVERY PATIENT INTERACTION
WHILE REWARDING THE SKILLS AND EFFORTS OF THEIR MANAGERS AND STAFF. THE MILTON
AND CARROLL PETRIE DIVISION OF MOUNT SINAI HEALTH SYSTEM’S BETH ISRAEL HOSPITAL, AN
856-BED TEACHING HOSPITAL LOCATED IN THE HEART OF NEW YORK CITY’S LOWER EAST SIDE,
BUILT A SUCCESSFUL PARTNERSHIP WITH CROTHALL TO IMPROVE PATIENT THROUGHPUT AND
SATISFACTION AMONG CLINICAL AND SUPPORT DEPARTMENTS PROVIDING WORLD-CLASS CARE.
THE CORE OF
EXCEPTIONAL
TR ANSPORT
IN PRODUCTIVE TRIPS
PER HOUR
400%
INCREASE
IN TRANSPORT
VOLUME
625%
INCREASE

2. CROTHALL.COM
Crothall Healthcare, a member of Compass Group PLC. © 2016 Crothall Healthcare. All rights reserved. CS423_6.10.16
OLD LOG, NEW TRICKS
Good transport began to replace old problems without
disturbing daily routines. Nurses would previously avoid
delayed pickup rounds by taking blood specimens and other
test material to laboratories themselves before spoilage, losing
patient care time and adding false jobs to transporters’ logs.
Crothall managers eliminated the time-consuming rounds and
included transport requests in the TeleTracking automated
system. The new system also evened out laboratories’ inflows,
resulting in fewer rush times.
The new department eventually won nurses’ trust through
proven results. Request completion rose from 700 per week
to more than 4400 by the second quarter of 2016, when the
service expanded to include the operating and post-operative
care units. The average time from request to completion is a
slim 11 minutes. Aggregated jobs, in which several samples are
transported to a shared destination by one employee, is also a
quick 20 minutes.
SCHEDULED FOR SUCCESS
“Staffing analysis on a quarterly basis was key to our
success,” said David Girdusky, Crothall Director of Patient
Transportation Services at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. “Having the
right amount of staff at the right time helped us adjust during
this period of great growth.” The department previous to
Crothall had three static shifts, during which most transporters
took the same breaks. The management team divided
responsibilities into 16 daily shifts starting at different times to
avoid idle or overactive times. The flexibility allowed efficiency
to increase quickly while closing 2015 with the department
$80,000 under budget.
Management recognizes and rewards excellence in their
team. Jen Guzman, a full-time transport employee at the
time of Crothall’s partnership with Beth Israel Petrie, took the
initiative to train new employees and was hired by Girdusky
as a manager. “Seeing where we are now compared to a year
and a half ago, I have to triple check the numbers to believe
them sometimes,” said Guzman. “We couldn’t have done it – I
couldn’t be here – without the Crothall leadership.”
To learn what Crothall can do for your organization,
call 1-877-4CROTHALL (1-877-427-6842).
COOPERATION IS KEY
Crothall took charge of patient transport at Mount Sinai
Beth Israel’s Petrie Division after showing exemplary results
managing housekeeping and physical therapy services at
Mount Sinai hospitals. One of the first new policies included
extending weekend hours to midnight, later changed to 24-
hour coverage, to handle transport demands that were not
being previously handled by the decentralized department.
The initial steps of improving efficiency required new
cooperation from hospital departments and employee
representatives. Crothall managers absorbed unionized
transporters, who required a plan to transition policies and
benefits. Managers utilized negotiations, town halls, and phased
inclusion of transport needs to build a new system supported
by all parties involved. The new department had merged all
employees into a centralized department by April 2015.
BY THE NUMBERS
24-HOUR
coverage after nightly closures
$80,000
under budget in 2015
11MINUTES
average specimen transport time