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Improving Patient Flow

Emergency Department (ED) overcrowding is a global issue which has been linked to increased mortality and morbidity for patients. Providing safe and effective care in a timely manner is a public policy issue and Healthcare providers face difficulty in delivering timely care on a daily basis due to congested ED’s.

Many congestion issues within the ED are not due to the volume of patients attending or to inadequate staffing levels, but are in fact attributable to poorly designed processes for patient throughput. This perpetuates a mismatch in capacity and demand. In real terms this means that no matter how hard the staff work, there will always be the potential for the ED to become overcrowded and for waiting times for patients to lengthen.  Identifying which processes are causing congestion and realigning available capacity within your ED can alleviate some of the congestion experienced on a daily basis and assist you to perform to your Key Performing Indicators.

The Leading Edge Group will evaluate and diagnose critical processes within your ED and identify the key bottlenecks that cause congestion and effect performance.

Deliverables

The following deliverables will be achieved as part of this 5-day programme:

  • Delivery of a current state design and data collection of major processes within the ED
  • Data collected will be compared with industry benchmarks nationally
  • Areas for process improvement identified
  • Opportunities for standard work practices to enhance flow and improve quality of patient care outlined
  • Frontline staff will become proficient in the concept of the “vertical patient”
  • Projects will be scoped for future process improvements tailored uniquely to your ED
  • Action Plan for success detailed

Approach

This 5-day programme will involve a series of internal workshops, process mapping and observations of the process in addition to the collection of relevant performance data. Appropriate Lean Sigma tools will be utilised as required. The client will appoint a project lead for the duration of the project and this person will be the primary interface with the Leading Edge Group representative.  In advance of project start date, a project charter will be agreed between the parties to ensure that the project scope and deliverables are clearly defined.

Please contact our Senior Clinical Lead, Jane Bishop, on jbishop@leanscm.com to discuss any of our programmes