CHICAGO, Ill. — Texas Children’s Hospital has won the 2017 Excellence in Health Care Facility Management Award for its Mission Control project, which created a unified operations and communications hub that uses real-time data to effectively manage the movement of patients. The award, presented by the American Society for Healthcare Engineering and sponsored by Trane,  recognizes individuals or facility management departments that implement new or innovative programs or processes to optimize the physical environment and improve patient care.

The Mission Control room at Texas Children’s Hospital, a 745-bed facility in Houston, houses a large LED display showing patient admissions and dispatches, the location of ambulances and other key information. Each workstation has four monitors showing information vital to the patient transportation process. By being in the same room and sharing information, the team can make the best decisions about patients coming to or leaving the hospital.

“This unified operation has helped our institution reduce transportation times, improve the patient acceptance process and optimize system communication,” said Mark Mullarkey, Texas Children’s Hospital executive vice president. “Our facilities management group has played a key role in developing the vision and assisting in bringing Mission Control to life.”

After the Mission Control project was completed, the hospital’s transfer team reduced the time from dispatch to pickup. The decrease in response time led to an increase in transports to the hospital.

For more information, visit www.ashe.org/about/awards.