Regaining Volume in Imaging & Surgery Through Process Improvement - One Year Later

Session
Operational Performance Improvement

Authors
Sandy Yanko
Director, Management Engineering, HCA

Don Schildkamp
Director, Management Engineering, HCA

Description
As pressure from outside competitors, including imaging and surgery centers, has escalated over the last few years, hospitals are looking for ways to improve their processes to regain patient volume. From registration to turnaround times to when a report is available, we'll provide examples of changes made over the past year in a number of hospitals as well as the measured results and lessons learned.

Abstract
In November 2004, all 180 of HCA's hospitals were given a report that outlined approximately 30 recommendations in imaging and surgery to gain back the volume we may have lost, keep the volume we have, and to grow our volume further. The report detailed the expected outcomes, steps, responsible party, priority, and timeframe in the areas of:
1. Scheduling
2. Registration
3. Patient flow/access
4. Results reporting

Service targets for surgery and imaging metrics were established and hospitals have been tracking their results since January 2005. The metrics include: first case on-time starts, surgeon turnaround time, prime time utilization, scheduled vs. actual case length, registration time, and imaging exam complete to results available. Also, patient trackers have been installed at the hospitals.

This presentation will track the progress and implementation of several hospitals, showing specific action steps, progress-to-date, and lessons learned.

NOTE: this is a follow-up presentation to last year's presentation.