The Outpatient Infusion Team, Emma Hogsed and Laura McCaslin, identified an opportunity for decreasing the patient wait time when they were having medication via infusion or injections. Patients commented that they were waiting sometimes greater than an hour for their medications to start infusing. Once the medication is started, some patient's treatment can go on for four to five hours more.
We created a LEAN team to reduce the Outpatient Medicine throughput. The team consisted of Outpatient Medicine, Pharmacy, Courier Services, and Quality & Safety.
The team identified ways to reduce the wait times:
Courier service to deliver starting at 8:15 instead of 8:00.
Outpatient staff was activating the order and calling the pharmacists. Changed to only activating the order.
Relocated medications from the Pharmacy to the Outpatient Pyxis.
With these efforts, we were able to reduce the patient wait time by 20%. Patients have expressed how happy they are with the time improvement.
The Outpatient Infusion Team shows an amazing display of their devotion and sincere compassion for their patients. They continue to look for ways to improve their area.