Leading the healthcare AI revolution: a letter from the LeanTaaS CEO
When I was growing up in India, my family installed a landline in our home. The lead time between starting the process and installing the phone was four years. We were the fortunate ones, as many of our friends waited even longer. Due to this lengthy lead time, many households in India never installed landlines […]
Healthcare analytics must go beyond “admiring the problem”
The world of healthcare analytics — in fact, all analytics — is not monolithic. It ranges from solutions that admire problems to those that prescribe actions to create value. The further hospitals and health systems move to the right of this spectrum (i.e. using analytics that create valuable prescriptions rather than just describing them), the more they will experience […]
Is healthcare different from other asset-heavy industries? Managing capacity for hospital operations improvement
To fulfill the potential of hospital operations improvement and optimize our capacity, we need look no further than the asset-heavy, data-driven industries that have unlocked theirs. Every day, UPS has to predict where millions of packages are going to originate on future days and where they are going to go. Many of these will be overnight […]
7 ways to reduce Length of Stay (LOS) in hospitals
Originally published in Becker’s Hospital Review, September 2021. To reduce hospital length of stay (LOS) became a critical priority during COVID-19, and continues to be one as surges continue. Even in “peacetime”, however, capitated reimbursement levels and the need to decrease hospital-acquired conditions made LOS reduction key for health systems. While efforts to reduce hospital length […]
Infusion scheduling: winning the game of Tetris
Operational leaders in oncology know exactly how difficult it is to balance the multiple tradeoffs needed to create infusion center scheduling templates. Patients want a consistent appointment for each week of their 8-week infusion regimen; nurses want a predictable time to eat lunch and end their shift each day; the clinical staff want the flexibility […]
Optimizing a service process by finding its “heartbeat”
Virtually every health system has launched various process excellence initiatives over the years. The exact methods range from a series of Kaizen events, Value Stream Mapping, or a top-down Six Sigma or Lean Initiative. The transformation efforts could have been guided by internal process excellence teams or external consultants. These initiatives often succeed in demonstrating […]
Filling the gaps in infusion nurse scheduling
Operational leaders within the Oncology service line are fully aware of exactly how difficult it is to balance the multiple tradeoffs that must be made in order to schedule infusion services efficiently. Patients would like to have a consistent schedule for each week of their 8-week infusion regimen; nurses would like a predictable schedule to eat […]
Dismantling the “scarcity mindset” in surgical block time management
The way OR time has been allocated and managed for decades has led to a “scarcity mindset” and all the natural resulting behaviors. Block Time is treated as a zero sum game and here is what happens in almost every OR in this country: This “scarcity” mindset is very much akin to many other real world situations. […]
Optimizing speciality clinics in a telemedicine world
Patients resign themselves to this simple fact every time they have an appointment with a specialist: nearly half of the total time that they spend in the clinic will be spent waiting alone. This clinic “alone time” begins in the waiting room, both before and after check-in. Then there is the time spent perched on the […]
“No block left behind” in operating rooms
Operating Rooms are the economic backbone of a hospital, often generating more than 50 percent of revenues and profits for the institution. A single block of Operating Room time (~500 minutes) can generate $50K – $100K+ in revenue per day, depending on the payor and case mix. ORs are also the most expensive resource to […]