A large Florida-based health system comprising roughly 50% employed providers and 50% community providers, Lee Health relied heavily on faxes to schedule surgical cases. To promote more efficient scheduling, eliminate extra work for staff, and continue delivering perioperative care to its extensive patient community, Lee Health needed a solution to standardize and streamline communications and processes.
50% employed providers
50% community providers
Lee Health’s high number of surgical sites and ORs ran on a fax-based scheduling process, and its even mix of employed and community providers had individual approaches to scheduling. Due to manual communications and lack of standardization, Lee Health’s OR scheduling inefficiencies were particularly felt by clinic and OR schedulers. When they received faxes from clinic schedulers, OR schedulers had to manually transcribe the information into the EHR, and communication among clinic and OR schedulers to coordinate case scheduling could take extended amounts of time. This led to excessive hours and overly burdensome work for all OR scheduling staff across the system, including 10 full time equivalents (FTEs), nine schedulers, and one supervisor.
To address these issues, Lee Health needed a solution to drive a standardized, singular process for all clinics, employed or community, as well as streamline communications.
In March 2023, Lee Health adopted LeanTaaS’ AI-powered iQueue for Operating Rooms solution. Specifically, Lee Health implemented the iQueue Scheduling tool to eliminate faxes and support swift and clear communication among clinic and OR schedulers; iQueue Reports to give stakeholders access to system-wide, standardized data and metrics; and iQueue Block Management to support fair, accurate, and efficient block time assignments and usage.
iQueue Scheduling transformed Lee Health’s manual scheduling workflow into an electronic one. The tool significantly reduced the time OR schedulers needed to transcribe information into the EHR, and introduced a commenting system that provided a clear line of communication, reducing the need for phone calls and faxing. The scheduling process became so efficient that when Lee Health lost three FTEs, the remaining staff were able to manage the workload without the positions needing to be backfilled. The workforce costs of schedulers were reduced by 30%.
With the Block Management tool supporting a more nuanced understanding of available block time and increasing visibility and access to open time, Lee Health also saw a 9% increase in case volume and 7% increase in both staffed room and block utilization in their first year using iQueue. Local facility leadership has also leaned on the analytics in iQueue Reports to drive decision making in the ORs around blocks, to foster further improvements in the future.
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