Improve Patient Wait Times
As our population ages and baby boomers start requiring higher levels of care there is beginning to be a dramatic increased demand taxing our already struggling health care system. Without additional financial resources, space or availability of qualified staff, it is imperative that we work smarter to accommodate this increased workload and protect our staff from burnout.
One area which has become front and center in health care issues recently is patient wait times. Not only is there the life threatening risk of complications by having a delay in receiving care much increased but also, patients situations and status may change by the time care is available making what is now available no longer the appropriate option or something needing to be redone. This initiates a domino effect and will in turn cause the next patient to have a longer wait time as well.
By mapping and evaluating the processes that are involved you will be able to identify and eliminate the waste that causes the excessive waiting. Collecting metrics will give you a baseline and let you identify where the problems in your processes really are and measure impact of changes. There are Lean tools which will help address these issues. By using standard work and visual aids in room changeover, whether it be in the OR, ER or any other patient care area rooms will be ready for the next waiting patient much quicker. Using 5S will allow staff to spend less time searching for items required to provide care and more time caring for their patient.
Using KAIZEN Lean in Diagnostics will allow decreased Turn Around Time (TAT) for these areas which in turn will not only allow patients to receive response to their results in a more timely fashion but will also allow them to move to the next part of their treatment opening up a bed for the next patient. By focusing the new design of the processes around the top 80% of its requirements and systematically eliminating waste you will be able to make a dramatic effect on patient wait times.