Abstract
Los Angeles County is in crisis with its emergency ambulatory care. Many barriers exist at the hospital level that affect patient throughput. A case study is presented for St. Francis Medical Center, a 384-bed hospital in southeast Los Angeles. Its governing board has put out a call to have its emergency department oversee intraprocess and interprocess improvements to enhance patient movement through the system. These innovative front- and back-end initiatives are examined using the Institute of Medicine's Six Aims for Improvement. Details on each of the initiatives are provided along with how the leadership monitors the progress.