Rock Ledge Resources > Industries - Life Sciences > Representative Project - Cross-Industry Best Practices

Reaching Across Industries for Best Practices Drives Operational Excellence in Healthcare

Business Challenge

A "Big 4" consulting firm engaged a principal of Rock Ledge Resources to develop an operational efficiency service line for healthcare providers based on best practices in industry. The emergency room (ER) of an urban hospital in a mid-size U.S. city was chosen as the beta site. The current situation was alarming. The expected length of stay in the ER was in excess of seven hours per patient, 43% of the treated patients left without paying and marketing studies revealed that many patients drove past this hospital to be treated at other hospitals in the area. Information on patient status was kept manually and not immediately available to the charge nurse running the shift.

Solution

In any process, the incorporation of flow and transparency are required to assure the process operates to the maximum benefit of all the stakeholders. Practices in the ER precluded either of these concepts being effective. The principal established the total "touch time" for a patient, validated that patients arrived in a steady flow and identified the time of day when processes began to break down. Solutions included: incorporation of flow through minor layout modifications, implementation of a simple database program with remote terminals for input to provide transparency, balancing of staffing to coincide with patient arrival and agreement on priority for ER patients requiring admission to the hospital. In addition, part of the revised layout was to move the billing personnel to the exit, dramatically reducing the "left without paying" percentage.

Results

Expected length of stay for all patients quickly moved below three hours, a greater than 50% reduction. The percentage of patients to leave without paying was dramatically reduced. Customer satisfaction, as determined by survey, doubled.

Relationships: Russ Weybright | Operational Excellence | Life Sciences