Hot topic on Process Improvement in the Healthcare industry

Monday, December 6th, 2010

Process improvement has become a hot topic in the healthcare industry. Our Process Standardization and Improvement Standardization Team stays current on clinical pathway improvements, In our recent research, we came across process improvement at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Zeidel, Physician-in-Chief and Chairman of the Department of Medicine of BIDMC discusses applying Kaizen concepts to Medical Care. “It is easy to understand how Takt time, work sequence and standard‐work‐in progress apply to support functions like laboratory measurements of CBC and chemistries, pharmacy filling of medicine orders, and dietary services’ preparation and delivery of food. We might think that these concepts do not apply to patient care. However, consider the processes involved in seeing patients in the outpatient setting. Whatever the patient’s complaints and comorbidities, each must be given an appointment, must be checked in, must be escorted back to see the doctor, must see the doctor, and must be checked out. Many also need to have blood drawn. The check in, escorting, check out and blood drawing are pretty much the same for each patient.”

Watch for upcoming News on how SPECTROM Clinical Systems is helping healthcare facilities plan for future growth.