Achieving “systemness” in perioperative care
COVID-19 has taught the healthcare industry many valuable lessons. It has especially highlighted why health systems must work efficiently as “one system,” from an operational and financial perspective. Given the many challenges modern health systems face, however, this is easier said than done. Enter “systemness,” or the practice of providing consistent patient, provider and staff […]
Increasing infusion center resource utilization: a strategic approach to scheduling
This article originally appeared in Oncology Practice Management. We often compare scheduling infusion appointments to playing a game of Tetris, as most of the effort is focused on fitting patients with appointments of varying lengths into all available resources in the center. Once every resource is scheduled into and there are no more gaps on any […]
Hospital-surgeon data transparency delivers surgeon satisfaction and hospital ROI
Hospitals across the country have been increasingly adopting technology to proactively optimize surgical capacity. By leveraging technologies to improve the accessibility, accountability and visibility of operating room time, hospitals that have implemented LeanTaaS’ iQueue for Operating Rooms have achieved impressive results including increased primetime utilization (6 percentage points, on average), increased block utilization, hospital-surgeon data transparency […]
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 […]
UCHealth improved admission/discharge predictions, increased agility, and reduced daily chaos with advanced analytics
iQueue for Inpatient Beds is a cloud-based solution that drives daily inpatient capacity management decisions at all levels from a single operations-focused source of truth, including discharge and admissions predictions for each unit by time of day. iQueue for Inpatient Beds was developed to combat the key patient flow issues hospitals are facing, including poor […]
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 […]
5 solutions to maximize your OR capacity
Operating Rooms (ORs) are the economic backbone of nearly every healthcare system, and OR utilization is a key metric. It’s a perishable commodity that trades in time, and once time comes and goes, it’s an opportunity forever lost. Too many times, ORs sit unused, for a variety of reasons, ranging from the early completion of […]
“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 […]
Making the invisible visible: optimizing operating room access
An earlier version of this article originally appeared on Health IT News. Accessing operating rooms (ORs) has been a cumbersome, manual process often managed by history and instinct. However, today’s environment requires lean, agile, and visible access into this expensive and complex hospital resource. Flexing OR access up and down, maximizing use of open time and […]