Summary
Founded in 1986, Texas Oncology is one of the country’s largest community-based cancer care practices. The organization’s mission is to provide high-quality cancer care with leading-edge technology and advanced treatment and therapy options in communities across Texas and southeastern Oklahoma. More than 500 physicians deliver care at 210 locations across those two states, and Texas Oncology has played a role in developing more than 100 FDA-approved cancer-fighting drugs. Texas Oncology’s current large footprint is the result of two decades’ worth of growth, from a strategy based on establishing locations near all patients, so that none would have to drive far to receive cancer care.
Problem
As soon as Texas Oncology achieved its high growth and maximized its physical footprint, the organization needed ways to increase patient capacity without further expanding or building more clinics. They also needed to increase volume in the infusion centers that already existed without spending additional capital, using a solution that was easily scalable across their statewide network of variously-sized clinics.
Overall capacity limits manifested in the day-to-day, as Texas Oncology clinics struggled with uneven utilization of infusion chairs, which led to needlessly long patient wait times and nurses missing lunches and breaks during midday peak times. Safety measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic also contributed to a need to maximize chairs and staffing resources.
Solution
Texas Oncology deployed iQueue for Infusion Centers across their clinics to increase capacity without expanding the physical footprint of their clinics, improve chair utilization during afternoon hours that were historically less busy and thus reduce chaos during peak hours, and provide staff and leaders visibility into the overall scheduling decisions.
iQueue for Infusion Centers went live at Texas Oncology’s largest, 100-chair clinic in January 2021 and then at 13 additional clinics.; it is now live at over 65 sites. As a result of the iQueue for Infusion Centers implementation, Texas Oncology achieved an increase in average scheduled appointment volume while utilizing existing resources, more level-loaded chair utilization during peak hours, and increased chair utilization during those key afternoon hours. The analytics in iQueue have also empowered Texas Oncology to make key operational decisions related to staffing and physical expansion needs.
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