Organizational Improvement
In an online article in Hospitals and Health Network Daily, Haydn Bush describes how Mark Chassin, M.D., president of the Joint Commission, believes it may be time for hospitals to move away from best practices and adopt comprehensive improvement methods that allow for deeper, more specific analyses of their patient safety requirements. Dr. Chassin cites examples of multiple failure modes of various processes in different facilities that can't effectively be addressed by best practices alone.
Under the New England VERC, engineering faculty and students from Northeastern University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Massachusetts Institute of Technology are working on projects within VA facilities. VERC members are learning firsthand about healthcare issues and developing solutions and approaches that will improve care.
Dr. John D. Evans shares his thoughts in this video presentation, at the 2011 Stanford Graduate School of Business Healthcare Summit, about the importance of leveraging systems engineering in the healthcare sector. Using intensive care units as an example, Evans points out that no one has ever really sat down with a clean sheet of paper and said, "This is the mission." He says what the intensive care unit, and the healthcare market in general, needs is for innovators to create efficient designs not just for individual technologies, but for the whole system. Evans presents a generalized model for a systems engineering that he believes should be applied to healthcare.
This presentation at the 2012 Healthcare Systems Process Improvement Conference describes how the Operational Improvement team at Nebraska Medical Center is organized for sustained improvement. The leader of the OI team describes the process to identify potential projects and prioritize centralized project leadership resources based on organizational benefits, while simultaneously developing these individuals as future organizational leaders.
A recent article in the UW-Madison College of Engineering Alumni Magazine describes ongoing research in the Department of Industrial and System Engineering to improve healthcare. One research project led by Professor Doug Wiegmann is being done to develop better methods to improve flow and communication in the operating room. Data is being collected at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where graduate students follow trauma cases from the emergency department through surgery. The research is sponsored in part with a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense.
Mark Graban blogs on Steve Markovich's keynote address, "Bringing Value to Your CEO." Steve Markovich is president of Riverside Methodist Hospital in the OhioHealth System. Markovich is also a family practice physician, Brigadier General in the Ohio National Guard and an F-16 fighter pilot.
An online article in American Nurse Today, describes how Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) in eastern Pennsylvania, is working to implement Lean. LVHN calls their approach the "System for Partners in Performance Improvement (SPPI)." The goal of the organization is to discover more efficient ways to provide health care by using lean tools and concepts that reduce waste and repetition. The article provides a detailed description of the five-day rapid improvement event process in use at LVHN.
In this presentation at the 2011 SHS Conference, Jonathan Flanders describes how a 400 bed hospital reduced average LOS for Hospitalist patients by 1.0 day using lean concepts applied at the service-line level. The presentation is a comprehensive case study for the application of lean and six sigma tools. The use of multi-level value stream mapping applied to an inpatient care unit will be of particular benefit for readers struggling in this area.
In this presentation at the 2011 SHS Conference, Lynn Alters describes how a system-wide performance improvement initiative improved margins by 40 percent at WellStar Health System using internal resources and fostering an environment of trust and respect. In addition to the financial benefits, the initiative created stronger leaders and will soon exceed its initial goals by three-fold.
A multidisciplinary group at Presbyterian Healthcare Services teamed together to meet the Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goal and to reduce the central line infection rate to less than 1 per 1,000 patient days. The team used a Lean Sigma improvement methodology to identify a number of countermeasures including checklists, education, defined observer, and a standardized central line kit. In the first six months of the project, the central line infection rate was reduced to .22 infections per 1,000 patient days.
Lessons learned from moving to Web-based surgical requests
The authors delivered a presentation and paper at the 2011 SHS Conference providing a comprehensive case study of how the Sir Mortimer B. Davis-Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, Quebec, moved from a paper surgical request process to a web based system. The lessons learned described by the authors will be valuable for anyone undertaking a similar large scale IT change.
Nursing leaders at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center in Camden, New Jersey, engaged staff to improve patient and employee satisfaction and reduce staff turnover on a medical-surgical unit using the Transforming Care at the Bedside (TCAB) model developed by Robert Woods Johnson Foundation and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. The team focused on a set of directed methodologies and conducted a number of experiments that resulted in dramatic improvement.
A recent feature in Binghamton's Watson Review describes ongoing healthcare improvement research at the Watson Institute for Systems Excellence (WISE). Ongoing healthcare research at WISE includes research in ED throughput and supply chain. WISE researchers collaborate with a number of hospital systems including Vitua, Mayo, and Wilson and Binghamton General Hospitals. Thirteen research assistants in the WISE program have recently been placed in healthcare organizations.
In a recent New York Times article, Dr. Pauline W. Chen makes a case that organizational culture is more important than technique and technology in providing quality healthcare.
In this paper recognized at the SHS 2011 Conference, the authors from the École Polytechnique de Montréal address the difficulty and complexity of nurse scheduling. The authors developed an algorithm to optimize nurse scheduling and also a heuristic model that can be applied without complex computer analysis that results in considerable improvement over the current methodologies. The authors applied the optimization and heuristic models to two different hospitals in Montreal.
Popular author and speaker Atul Gawande challenged the 200 graduates of the 2011 Harvard Medical School to pursue a more systematic approach to delivering healthcare. He used pit crews and cowboys as examples of working as a system.
A multidisciplinary team working at the Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego, Calif., was formed to improve ED throughput. Based on comprehensive variability analysis the team implemented a number of changes including daily performance reporting, a fast track for lower acuity patients, and standardized nurse and physician rounding. The changes resulted in a 10 percent lower length of stay and a 50 percent reduction in left without being seen. These changes are planned to improve revenue by $782,000 to be budgeted in the next fiscal year.
In an article recently published in the Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management, the authors concluded that while IE students working in hospitals focused on technical approaches to improvement, mastery and application of softer skills may be more beneficial.
In this presentation at the 2011 Society for Health Systems conference, Cindy Hafer provides a comprehensive look at how Nationwide Children's Hospital in Cincinnati is moving to eliminating all preventable harm to patients through a comprehensive safety initiative.
At a recent Premier Breakthroughs Conference and Exhibition, clinical and performance improvement staff at the 370-bed Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, New York presented a case study of improvement on a nursing unit using the TCAB model.
Rachel Fields summarized the opinion of Dennis Patterson, chairman of The Collaborative for Healthcare Leadership, on the top ways to cut labor expenses in hospitals.
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre is considering implementing recommendations made by three fourth-year students at the University of Windsor Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering as part of their capstone project. Ben de Mendonca, Josh Vandermeer and Andrew Phibbs, conducted an intensive examination of the system used by the emergency department to collect and label patient blood samples.
Pharmacy leaders at Elkhart General Hospital, in Elkhart, Ind., applied a number of lean concepts resulting in lower operational costs and improved patient care.
A recent study in the Annals of Surgery found that high quality hospitals deliver lower cost care to trauma patients, according to a news release by the University of Rochester Medical Center.
In a recent presentation at the 2011 SHS Conference, Brian H. Fillipo delivered a presentation on a comprehensive approach to reducing patient falls across seven Bon Secours hospitals in Virginia.
In a case study on the AHRQ website, the 340-bed Forbes Regional Campus of Western Pennsylvania Hospital developed a number of strategies to reduce delays in patient admission and discharge resulting in improved patient flow. The improvements were made during a weeklong kaizen blitz.
In an article previously published in Industrial Engineer magazine, industrial engineering researchers at Clemson University assisted Cannon Memorial Hospital in Pickens, S.C., in a number of hospital-wide and service specific improvements resulting in increased efficiency.
Discusses the increasing importance of case management in reducing costs and improving reimbursement in the current environment.
The stltoday.com website recently featured efforts at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis to provide improved patient-centered-care using a number of lean management principles. A number of examples of process improvement in the OR and peri-operative services are discussed.
The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, TDI, has been selected to support a national collaboration aimed at reducing costs for high-volume, high-cost chronic and acute medical conditions that have high cost variation. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Cleveland Clinic, Denver Health, Geisinger Health System, Intermountain Healthcare and the Mayo Clinic have teamed together to take on such things as knee-replacement surgery where there is up to 50 percent cost variation.
Many U.S. healthcare organizations are already being exposed to Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) reviews of Medicare and Medicaid billing as well as other third-party payor audits to assure accurate and non-fraudulent billing. In response, the authors propose an analytical approach to efficiently evaluate the accuracy of billing.
A case study of a centralized patient tracking system at Sentara Careplex Hospital in Hampton, Va. The case study shows how Sentara was able to reduce patient registration labor by over 50 percent and save over $300,000 per year.
A recent article in AORN Management Connections by Carina Stanton describes how three healthcare organizations are implementing lean.
It's time for hospital operations to be built on the back of adaptive technology instead of human performance alone. As other industry transformations have demonstrated, adaptive technology can become the engine driving sustainable performance over time.
A discussion of survey results regarding communication between providers and the patient. The visit quality as perceived by the patient increases with fewer communications.
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.
Management Engineering: What is it?
Management engineers may need money to implement healthcare improvement. This article outlines several potential funding sources.
One hospital details improvements to their medical equipment retrieval, cleaning, and distribution process.
Using Lean Six Sigma tools, a hospital redesigns and implements new ICU protocols for patients on mechanical ventilation. The article details how the initial sustainability effort failed, but was brought back into long-run control.
A traditional process improvement methodology leads to changes within a hospital's HR department. Results from time studies, swim lanes, and simulation are used to support the proposed solutions.
Physician and Nursing roles and responsibilities within a PICU are redefined using lean tools to decrease LOS while increasing outcomes.
Using examples from several clinical lab redesigns, the sequence of steps utilized during a lean improvement effort are described.
Karen Martin describes the steps needed to ensure an improvement effort is successful at a system level, and ways for a performance improvement consultant to continuously improve their professional skills.
Four experts discuss various health care issues and potential solutions. The implementation of lean, the importance of sustainability, the necessity of crafting appropriate technology solutions, and the ultimate need for improvements to come from within an organization are covered.
A CT scan department has its demand smoothed.
5S theory and implementations are discussed
Lean tools are used to redesign processes throughout a hospital.
Discussion of applications of lean within the OR.
System-level quality and effectiveness programs are implemented using Six Sigma at a childrens' hospital in Washington DC.
Improvement projects in surgery, nursing, and the ED are discussed. The process of moving a hospital towards adoption of Lean Six Sigma is also described.
Pharmacy decision-making is discussed, with focus on controlling costs.
What are the parts of a rewarding career as an engineer in health care? This presentation proposes an answer.
A methodology for standardized evaluation of the financial impact of operational and patient care improvements is discussed.
Several change management projects are covered in brief, moving rapidly through high-level descriptions of problem / intervention / impact steps.
Detailed description of a lean project to improve TAT in the CT Scan department.
In a for-profit ambulatory surgical center, the current scheduling method often results in cases starting later than the initial plan. The presentation describes an implementation of clustering as well as multiple simulations of different possibilities.
Why do some improvement projects fail and others succeed? What are some big-picture concepts that could move organizations to success with process improvement projects? This is a big-picture discussion of several issues.
The surgical admitting process is targeted with a lean event. Current and future state is described, the process of improvement is shown, and results are discussed.
Three successful lean projects are discussed in detail. The ED, Radiology, and HR departments all show significant improvement.
Three successful lean projects are discussed in detail. Specimen Labeling, Surgery and Endoscopy Pre-Op, and Inpatient Nursing Crash Cart projects all demonstrate significant improvement.
The authors propose a methodology for shortening the time gap between discovery of new evidence-based clinical results and hospital (provider) utilization of the new practice.
Results of a hospital-wide specimen labeling lean project is discussed.
Implementation of productivity monitoring programs are discussed
Multiple projects and results are discussed in the goal to continuously improve patient flow.
A hospital implements improvements in staffing to hourly changes in RN demand.
A consulting group presented their throughput ideas, including reasons why some department-specific projects fail to realize proposed improvements.
All processes in an ED are redesigned, with multiple outcomes showing improvement.
A 100,000 annual visit hospital ED is redesigned using lean principles. Wait times decrease and pt satisfaction and revenue increases. Simulation shows further viability of new processes. This presentation is made by a MD who became a lean coach.
A systemwide linking of departmental performance to manager and employee annual pay is discussed.
A Lean Six Sigma project focusing on ICU throughput times is completed. Lessons learned and successes are shared.
A lean project is done at a cardiac clinic. Problem is to reduce wait time for an appt and cycle time of the appointment. Results are discussed.
A performance improvement team tackles a call center. Issues and lessons learned are discussed.
An OR's case scheduling process is studied; improvement projects are proposed.
A hospital undertakes a systemic improvement of their OR suite. The process and final results are detailed.
Management team-building requires careful thought and planning. The presentation goes over several common pitfalls and proposes solutions.
Replacing manual processes and disparate systems with a multi-site Gastroenterology electronic medical record system in a large multispecialty practice had many challenges.
The presentation is a discussion of change management proposals and policies.. Some are successful yet some fail miserably.
Key success factors for change as well as the keys to team dynamics are considered and explained within this paper.
Emergent Care was redesigned to decrease wait time significantly.
Methods of confronting and smoothing the variability of patient flow are discussed.
4 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.
Lean projects at Kaiser Permanente are detailed and discussed. The report is a system-level presentation showing many departmental improvements.
A senior member of the Johnson&Johson consulting group discusses his approach to organizational culture change and the importance of sustained leadership commitment.
Root cause analysis was conducted to determine reasons for bed sores. This presentation and paper is the result of their team's effort. Sustainability and ongoing improvements are discussed.
System-wide implementation of Lean Six Sigma has resulted in many successes. This presentation discusses the rationale for their overall strategy.
The IHI Bundle was implemented; metric changes are documented and discussed. Several nursing practices were also changed.
Medicare's changes to payment require a higher degree of awareness from hospitals nationwide. This presentation addresses some of the concerns and discusses mitigation efforts currently underway.
Pressure Ulcers are a known issue with long hospitalizations. This presentation deals with several issues surrounding eliminating their occurrence.
ED charge capture is a constant problem for hospitals. This presentation covers one system-wide approach to increasing the capture rate.
HCA discusses its methodology for monitoring its usage of premium pay to ensure they use as little as possible.
A pre-registration Internet interface was successfully developed. Lessons learned and sustainability are also discussed.
This presentation motivates the approach to management of a hospital as continuous improvement of many systems.
Although healthcare is unlike any other service industry, improvement concepts are immediately applicable. This presentation teases out some specifics and attempts to answer student questions regarding the complexities of health care.
Payment denials were decreased, resulting in a cost savings of $1.6 million annually. This project steps through the list of improvements made.