Outpatient Care
Dr. Richard Zane quickly spotted huge waste and inefficiency soon after he was hired to head the University of Colorado Hospital emergency department in 2012.
Urgent Matters and the American College of Emergency Physicians have developed a discharge toolkit to expedite appropriate care for patients with atrial fibrillation.
This paper is a case study of work done at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas, to improve interventional radiology throughput with the main objective of reducing patient wait times and avoiding costly capital investment.
This article describes best practices for setting up a productive internal medicine clinic. Many of the practices described in this article can be applied for improved throughput and patient satisfaction in other types of ambulatory clinics.
This presentation covers many aspects of quality improvement in the pharmacy with a focus on improving flow. This presentation covers the project from the lean aspect as well as information technology, facility redesign and human factors.
This presentation at the 2013 Healthcare Systems Process Improvement Conference provides a case study in the use of vertical value streams for large, complex improvements. Vertical value streams are a multi-layered value stream approach using rigorous project management. Boulder Community Hospital applied this methodology to the opening a Patient Centered Medical Home.
This article in the Perkins+Will Research Journal shows a process modeling approach to defining the size of waiting spaces in a medical office building in the southeast.
Using Lean Six Sigma tools, a hospital redesigns its PAT department process so that all charting is completed 72 hours prior to the day of surgery.
Replenishment of IV fluids and medications can be more methodical than repeated visual inspections.
A lean project is done with a general physician clinic and an outpatient pharmacy; results are discussed.
A lean project is done at a cardiac clinic. Problem is to reduce wait time for an appointment and cycle time of the appointment. Results are discussed.
Four lean projects were performed - pharmacy, lab, outpatient clinic, and telemetry unit. Each project was meticulously documented in the presentation. Pre- and post- metrics are included, as well as a discussion of sustainability.