Before the cutbacks or the copay, even before increasing the resources devoted to the sector, should OPTIMIZE!
Last month my mother fell in the street. Luckily, nothing serious, but the knee swelled like a ball.
disciplines and to avoid unnecessary visits to specialist level, went first to the primary care center, after the first assessment, referred us to the Emergency Hospital for X-ray and rule breaking. Well, there we were, and saw that it was nothing serious, take my "starter kit" for visits to the emergency room: Identification and my mother's health card and my iPad. My mother, she naively asked me for wearing "that" and told him to entertain within 3 hours waiting for us ahead ... error: there were 3 hours, but 5!
Of these 5 hours, my mother was with clinical staff no more than 45 minutes all the time adding cash: triage, initial assessment, diagnostic test, liquid extraction procedure, and consultation for high-end emergency. 4 hours and 15 minutes remaining, "courtesy" of the hospital, are due to process inefficiencies outrageous.
not ask me which is the hospital, because they think it's relevant. It is not an isolated issue, rather it is a common theme in hospitals around the world. In the U.S., for example, the average stay in emergency department is more than 4 hours, and the same indicator would have similar or worse results in Europe or Latin America.
If you have lived a similar experience and is a good observer, you see that the areas or departments of the hospitals, more often than we think, work as "independent units" without being organized around process flows efficiently do the job. If further work in this sector, you know that there is a significant cultural barrier, since the non-clinical staff is particularly motivated to projects to improve efficiency. Clinical staff do not mind naturally the efficiency of the organization, and is well known its position on the fundamental reasons: to help people, save lives, heal ... ", so they tend to be skeptical and hearted when managers launch process improvement initiatives. However, it is shown that an efficient process not only improves the quality of care received by patients, a key objective of the clinical staff, but also increases productivity, attending to more people with the same resources.
Obviously, not all delays are due to inefficiencies, some are fully justified by the clinical case own course. Neither the emergency department is the only area hospital where they appear the same. In fact, to truly optimize the processes of an organization as complex as a hospital must analyze the relationships and flows between different units of the organization, as this is where disconnections occur and discontinuities are likely to improve.
Now in the world debate on the sustainability of health systems, now that Spain takes the discussion of health copayment or decreased activity scheduled non-emergency care to reduce costs, now that America is trying to expand the portfolio health services more equitably and seek the necessary financial resources to make it possible, now more than ever, with absolute honesty should examine whether health care providers squeeze into resources at their disposal, if sufficiently effective the care processes and ultimately, analyze the possibility of doing more with the same resources with which account.
Experiences hospitals in USA, UK, Spain and worldwide, show that they can substantially improve hospital processes and use resources more efficiently, generating more and better quality care to patients with different management approaches operations that have proved their worth as Leanhealthcare, Six Sigma, or the management of patient flows Professor Eugene Litvak , management approaches that managers of hospitals have ignored for too long.
become aware of this possibility and act accordingly, should be a priority for managers of hospitals and healthcare networks.
Source: Health Everis
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