While most health care organizations talk about the need to improve their quality, patient safety and operational performance by improving clinical and business processes, few organizations have a structured method to do so.
In 2009, Martin Memorial Health Systems developed a program that would improve overall health care quality, patient safety and patient/customer service. The “lean” program that developed is today known as Performance Excellence and is based on the Toyota “Lean” Production System.
The PE initiative began as a way to streamline Martin Memorial’s processes in an effort to make its operations more efficient, safer and consistent while improving health care. It was also a way to ensure the health system would continue to fulfill its mission and vision during a difficult economic climate and beyond by continually improving all aspects of service delivery.
To date, the PE initiative has evolved into four key transformational (or continuously improving) areas: Development of a new hospital in west Port St. Lucie, implementation of a new electronic medical record system, process optimization and culture.
Hospital at Tradition
In order to ensure the latest hospital design elements are incorporated into the new hospital at Tradition, a team of organizational leaders visited hospitals in Seattle, Florida and Texas, and finished their tour with a trip to the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value in Wisconsin. The visit to ThedaCare was of particular interest since ThedaCare is a nationally recognized leader in lean management and has incorporated many lean elements in a new inpatient bed tower.Statistics for the ThedaCare innovative collaborative care unit are impressive with improvements in defect-free admission medication reconciliation, length of stay reduction, and an increase in patient satisfaction and operating margin.
Electronic Medical Record Implementation
Martin Memorial’s PE team is partnering with the team implementing the new EMR system, as well as departmental leaders to look at individual processes and streamline them before the new technology comes into place.
The approach begins with a detailed assessment of current workflows, then identifies inefficiencies and finally defines a new workflow for key processes before we go live with the new system. The same approach is being applied for a similar IT system implementation, which will impact human resources, financial services and materials management.
Process Optimization and Culture
The PE team has partnered with many areas to streamline and improve workflow.
In the last year alone, 82 projects were documented, many consisting of multiple departments coming together and collaborating on ways to improve clinical and business processes.
These projects have addressed supply and equipment availability, missing documentation, patient transportation, clinical documentation, operating room turnaround time and wait time for emergency department patients.
Great ideas for improvements are continuously being brought forward by leaders, associates, physicians and volunteers. We are all part of a great team working together to achieve these goals while improving our excellent patient care and patient satisfaction.
