Situation
The Hematology-Oncology Center was experiencing low physician and patient satisfaction. The staff experienced long work days exceeding 12 hours that were extremely stressful. Patients were arriving 4-6 hours early for appointments hoping to ensure an on-time appointment which exacerbated the problem contributing to long wait times. Patients being admitted to the hospital for treatment were not arriving at their room until 10pm at night delaying treatment.
Opportunity
As the Center added new patients the workload increased and the staff found it difficult to keep up with patient volumes utilizing current staffing and processes. Eroding satisfaction among physicians and staff, hospital leadership recognized the need to take action. Rather than immediately proceeding to build out additional space and add staff, leaders sought to determine whether solutions could be found by evaluating and re-engineering existing processes and workflows in the Center.
- Remove wasted activities and steps from the process.
- Utilize simulation/modeling to discover hidden process bottlenecks and scheduling issues.
- Increase capacity of Center utilizing existing resources and space.
- Reduce inpatient admission delays.
- Decrease the average workday for staff and physicians.
Results
- Volume increased +23.5% from 85 to 105 per day
- Reduced average workday by 2.5 hours
- Overall center visit time reduced by 20%