building a culture of continuous improvement · improvement; leadership and staff, though, were...
TRANSCRIPT
The Opportunity
A community hospital serving a primarily rural population of
about 200,000 needed a culture shift. Despite strong patient care
and performance scores, there were definite opportunities for
improvement; leadership and staff, though, were content with the
status quo. But with changing leadership, tightening regulations,
increasing competition and declining reimbursements, it was time
for a change.
An Affiliate of Concurrent Technologies Corporation
Building A Culture of Continuous Improvement
The ProjectsOver an 18-month period numerous projects were tackled, with scopes ranging from narrow to broad and time-frames varying from one week to six months. Using an approach that carefully stepped through the improvement process, involved staff members from the front line through management, and yielded clear and quantifiable results, a culture of engagement and improvement grew from within. Completed projects included:
• Inpatient Discharge Planning
• Medication Reconciliation at Discharge
• Sepsis Mortality
• Specimen Labeling
• COPD Readmissions
• Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections
• Venous Thromboembolism
• Emergency Department Patient Flow
The Results Formal establishment of a hospital-wide continuous improvement program was accomplished by:
• Introducing 100% of staff to continuous improvement tools and techniques
• Conducting boot camp-style training for all hospital senior leaders and managers
• Training select staff in Lean and Six Sigma concepts, producing a cadre of hospital employees who can lead process improvement project teams
• Creating a project request and evaluation process, along with a step-by-step guide to project execution that includes templates and work instructions
Specific results proved the value of the process and were instrumental in driving the culture change:
• An average decrease in patient length of stay of over ¼ day, saving almost $8M annually in inpatient costs
• Elimination of missed medications through a revamp of the medication reconciliation at discharge process
• A nearly 10% reduction in sepsis mortality rates through identification and implementation of best practices
• Improved communicated between ER physicians and hospitalists, easing the transition for admitted patients
• More than a 35% decrease in the number of CAUTIs, with the number of infections down to just one per month on average
• Nearly 40,000 hours of lab time saved by standardizing the use of a specimen labeling barcode system
For more information, contact:
David R. DavisManaging Director, Software Sales and [email protected](814) 269-2582
www.evc.ctc.com
Approved for Public Release © 2016. Enterprise Ventures Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
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