Benedictine Hospital Adds Valuable Staff Hours
Using Principles of “Lean Health Care”
"Our executive team is very excited by the process and HVTDC’s suggestions and action steps. We are very pleased with the results. We are looking forward to working once again with HVTDC to evaluate other hospital functions including our Emergency Room Operations."
Thomas Dee ,
President and CEO
Benedictine Hospital
Recognizing the daunting amount of paperwork facing their staff each day, the executive team of Benedictine Hospital, a 222-bed acute care community hospital in Kingston, New York, decided they needed a new approach to rectify the increasing problem. The Hudson Valley Technology Development Center (HVTDC) recommended their award-winning “lean initiatives” program to streamline the billing process and increase profitability by decreasing the amount of paperwork and number of hands the material must pass through.
On Day 1, HVTDC conducted a brief Value Stream Mapping (VSM) introductory training session with the staff of those associated with Out Patient Chemotherapy. Through an interactive process, the staff and the HVTDC team “mapped” the flow of paperwork from reception to pharmacy, to nurse, to records, to administration, and finally to billing. All aspects of the process were placed into one of two categories - value add = actions essential for putting actual value into producing the paperwork, and non-value add = time being devoted to activities (ie: waiting for action, reviewing and checking) that delays the efficiency of the hospital’s services. By identifying the roles of each staff member, and how they each participated in the process of paper management, it was realized that multiple copies were being produced, paper was passing through many hands, files were being misplaced, etc. The HVTDC team evaluated the cycle time of paperwork, and provided ideas for improvement through action steps that staff members could implement immediately.
By Day 2, the eager staff had put several action steps in place including; the pick up of files at the end of day to reduce wait time; processing of paperwork as it is received, pre-sorted per function and readily checked for completeness; delegation to designated staff members; bills “dropped” upon completion. Overall, the people involved in this process were able to identify up to two hours of highly valuable staff time to be utilized in a more efficient manner. Additionally, the whole process would be completed faster, decreasing the cycle time to process the paperwork by 50% while the overall paperwork accuracy estimated rate soared to 95%.
For additional information, call 845-896-6934.