Improving Surgical Services Through Enhanced Ancillary Support

Session
Surgical Services

Author
Jace Manning
Management Engineer
Intermountain Healthcare - Utah Valley Regional Medical Center

Description
This presentation outlines process improvement and information technology utilization strategies within an ancillary department to bolster interdepartmental efficiency within Surgical Services. A real world example will describe the methods employed, successes achieved and challenges faced throughout implementation.

Abstract
This presentation summarizes the results of an initiative that began in late 2006 as an attempt to reduce errors in Central Processing (CP) at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, UT. The speaker will go into detail regarding the Management Engineering toolset that was employed to reduce errors from 6.24% to 1.49% over the course of the project. Attention will also be paid to the unique interdepartmental kaizen approach used to enhance the quality of service provided to Surgical Services.

In addition, a great deal of focus will be placed on the utilization of a barcode-based instrument tracking system as an effective workload measurement system. When combined with lean methodology, accurate workload measurement has ensured that CP is appropriately staffed, and with little change to the departmental skill mix, it has helped the department run at favorable productive salary variance of approximately $35,000 through May 2008 while still meeting the quality expectations of Surgical Services.