Five years after it opened, Johns Hopkins said its capacity command center had freed the equivalent of 16 beds a day without building or hiring.
16
beds of capacity a day
Five years after it opened, Johns Hopkins said its capacity command center had freed the equivalent of 16 beds a day without building or hiring.
The figure comes from Jim Scheulen, Johns Hopkins Medicine's chief administrative officer for emergency medicine and capacity management. He also said bed use rose from 85% to about 94%.
Source: Capacity Command Center Celebrates 5 Years of Improving Patient Safety, Access (opens in a new tab), Dome, March/April 2021. Verified October 2026.
Related charts
- From the blog
Hopkins assigned ED patients a bed 30% faster after opening a command center
Johns Hopkins Medicine, Capacity Command Center news release (October 2016) - From the blog
Cincinnati Children's went from 76% to 91% occupancy after smoothing its surgery schedule
Eugene Litvak, Bridging the Gap, National Academies presentation (2012); Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Achieving Hospital-wide Patient Flow, 2nd edition (2020) - From the blog
A boarded med-surg stroke patient cost nearly twice as much a day as one on a ward
Canellas et al., Annals of Emergency Medicine, vol. 84 (2024) - From research
Hospital drug expenses grew 13.6% in 2025, nearly twice as fast as total expenses
American Hospital Association, Costs of Caring 2026 (March 2026)
Sources for the figures above: The Johns Hopkins Hospital Launches Capacity Command Center to Enhance Hospital Operations (news release) (opens in a new tab); Eugene Litvak, Bridging the Gap: Operations Management Science, Patient Safety and Health Care Cost (presentation) (opens in a new tab); Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Achieving Hospital-wide Patient Flow, 2nd edition (2020) (opens in a new tab); Canellas MM et al., Measurement of Cost of Boarding in the Emergency Department Using Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing, Annals of Emergency Medicine 84(4) (opens in a new tab); American Hospital Association, Costs of Caring 2026 (March 2026) (opens in a new tab).
Related facts
30%
faster bed assignment for admitted ED patients
Johns Hopkins reported in 2016 that its new capacity command center assigned beds to admitted ED patients 30% faster.
Source: The Johns Hopkins Hospital Launches Capacity Command Center to Enhance Hospital Operations (news release).
KentApplied54%
of 195 emergency physicians surveyed reported violence tied to boarding
In a 2025 survey of 195 emergency physicians, published in Health Affairs Scholar, 54% reported experiencing violence related to emergency department boarding.
Source: Norton, Schreyer and Kuhn, Workforce impact of emergency department boarding, Health Affairs Scholar 3(8).
KentApplied$1,856
a day per boarded med-surg stroke patient
A 2024 Annals of Emergency Medicine study estimated that boarding a med-surg stroke patient in the ED cost $1,856 a day, against $993 for the same patient on a ward.
Source: Canellas MM et al., Measurement of Cost of Boarding in the Emergency Department Using Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing, Annals of Emergency Medicine 84(4).
KentApplied
Sources for the figures above: The Johns Hopkins Hospital Launches Capacity Command Center to Enhance Hospital Operations (news release) (opens in a new tab); Norton, Schreyer and Kuhn, Workforce impact of emergency department boarding, Health Affairs Scholar 3(8) (opens in a new tab); Canellas MM et al., Measurement of Cost of Boarding in the Emergency Department Using Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing, Annals of Emergency Medicine 84(4) (opens in a new tab).
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