How leading organizations are improving flow, efficiency and patient outcomes from ambulatory care through acute care and the OR.
Explore real-world strategies for advancing care progression across acute, ambulatory and perioperative settings. Attendees will gain practical insights and actionable approaches to improve patient access, patient flow, operational performance and patient outcomes.
Learn from proven success stories Explore real initiatives that improved access, throughput and care coordination.
Gain practical strategies
Discover approaches you can adapt and apply within your own organization.
Understand measurable outcomes See the results, challenges and lessons behind successful programs.
Bring back actionable ideas
Leave with insights to support operational efficiency and patient-centered care.
Through HCMC's "How Did They Do That?" format, healthcare leaders will share successful initiatives, barriers, outcomes and key lessons learned.
10:00 a.m.
Opening comments and udpates on HCMC membership, commitees, in-person conference and upcoming events.
10:10 - 11:00 a.m.
Efficient care progression depends on far more than bedside care. Behind every timely admission, transfer, discharge, and patient placement decision is a coordinated network of operational and clinical partners working together to remove barriers, create capacity, and support patient movement across the continuum of care.
This session explores how ECU Health integrates Case Management, Patient Placement Facilitators, Bed Control, centralized bed planning, clinical expeditors, and hospital operations teams to advance care progression and improve patient flow. Through real-world examples, participants will learn how operational collaboration, structured workflows, and real-time decision support can help health systems reduce delays, optimize capacity, and improve the patient experience. The presentation aligns with the symposium focus on Acute Inpatient Care Progression and highlights practical strategies that can be adapted across a variety of healthcare settings.
11:00 - 11:50 a.m.
Hospital capacity and throughput are often addressed from an inpatient perspective, but the ED can also improve capacity by partnering with ambulatory teams to create alternatives to hospitalization. This session describes UNC Health’s development of ED rapid follow-up pathways, highlighting how collaboration between ED and value care teams can optimize site of care, reduce low-value admissions, and generate scalable clinical and financial impact.
12:10 - 1:00 p.m.
Traditional capacity management often focuses on beds inside the hospital. Our team will share how Henry Ford Health has expanded the concept of capacity to include the thousands of "other beds" throughout the community, including patients homes, skilled nursing facilities, and other post-acute settings. We will discuss how coordinated population health, post-acute, and transition-of-care strategies can improve patient flow, reduce avoidable utilization, and create capacity throughout the healthcare system.
1:00 - 1:50 p.m.
Schedule subject to change.
By attending the Hospital Capacity Management Consortium (HCMC) 2026 Fall Symposium, participants may earn up to 4 ACHE Qualifying Education Credits (pending approval) toward initial certification or recertification of the Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE®) designation.
