Customer: Huntsville Hospital
Problem / Challenge: Cardiac Short Stay unit was experiencing delays in receiving lab values. This delay created interruptions in Cath and EP lab schedules and caused delays for patients and physicians leaving.
Proposed Solution: Establish a lean improvement team to identify causes of delays in lab values and implement near-term improvements.
Methodology and Outcomes:
Team & Training: Team members attended 4-Day UAH Lean Healthcare Academy training developed a project plan to reduce lab value turnaround time.
Mapping: The team mapped the cardiac short stay process, created a spaghetti diagram of nurse activities and identified opportunities to reduce lead time and processing time. The team then conducted a cost/benefit analysis and developed a prioritized action plan.
Countermeasures
The team implemented the following improvements:
• Created visual status of labs
• Created standardized lab order sets
• Implemented room setup time reduction
Results: As a result of the work of the team, the lab results turnaround time was reduced by 7.9% and lab costs were reduced by $94K annually.