The management team at the hospital was looking to enhance their responsiveness to the patient’s needs in the emergency department, but did not feel that simply adding additional professional resources to the staff would be the best solution. IET was asked to measure and evaluate the current process and identify opportunities for improvement.

IET took on the challenge with intent to improve performance in the emergency department with regards to patient satisfaction, security enhancement, patient flow, operating costs and average turnaround time.

IET began this project by leading a workshop with representatives from every area of the emergency department to discuss perceived issues and potential solutions. IET was able to use this session to gain valuable input about the process in an inclusive manner that allowed for support from the hospital staff. During this session, IET laid out the process improvement plan; measure, simplify, standardize and realize.

IET measured all of the activities performed by the professional staff and the patients over the period of 24 hours in the emergency department for several days. Using this data, IET was able to map the workflow paths, patient flow and professional interactions required for a functional emergency department. Due to the large fluctuation in demand throughout a 24 hour period, flexibility needed to be a key design factor.

Using the knowledge shared from the hospital staff and the data collected during work measurement, IET was able to design cross-functional working areas along with flexible work duties to improve patient satisfaction at a lower overall cost to the hospital. These results eliminated the need for hiring additional resources which saved $100K annually.