Read to find out how we reduced patient waiting times in hospitals

Introduction:? ?Our client's healthcare center is one of the largest basic healthcare institutions in Khamis, Saudi Arabia, with over 29,000 patients. It offers health-preventative and curative services.

The duration of customer waiting time has emerged as a critical concern for the organization, significantly affecting both customer retention and customer ratio.

As our team's analysis progressed, we determined that in order to reduce the hospital waiting time we would implement the Lean and DMAIC methodology.

Define Phase: About 30 children are given immunizations on a day-to-day basis.? Delay in vaccines in the PHCC's catchment region has resulted in sanctions imposed by higher authorities in response to client complaints.

Increased pressure regarding internal clients was a significant factor that had a detrimental impact on both the customer satisfaction level and the organization's reputation.

Measure Phase: In the measure phase, baseline measures of the current performance are established, collection of reliable data and calculated the sigma level of the process.? Also, the team gained insights into bottlenecks and variations in the waiting time.

Analyse Phase: We first brainstormed the potential causes for the delay in waiting time , generated ideas, and did a cause-and-effect diagram to categorize the different potential causes.

?File waiting time and total waiting time expressed in minutes are correlated.

Minute-by-minute Pearson correlation between file wait time and total waiting time is 0.712.

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Infant waiting time and overall waiting time expressed in minutes are correlated.

Minute-by-minute Pearson correlation between the well-baby waiting time and the total waiting time is 0.891.

Improve Phase:?

The team embarked on the "improve" phase, and brainstorming sessions were held to identify the potential solutions. We identified the below-mentioned solutions.

?A 5W2H planning tool was used to track the implementation plan, and a RACI chart was made to ensure good team communication in order to accomplish the project's objectives. An implementation plan was established.

?Control Phase: As the "control" phase's major objective is to preserve the gains, effective monitoring mechanisms have been developed in order to ensure that the solutions are kept in place. In order to guarantee that the solutions would continue to be put into place are training plan, responsibility matrix, and an audit check sheet were developed.

?Results and Benefits:

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53 out of 60 observations are above the upper specification limit which is 10 minutes according to VOC, with percentage = 88.3%. 2. The mean is 25.42.

?After implementing the DMAIC principle in the process, the improvement in waiting time is that

1. Every observation is well within the specified limits.

2. The mean is 7.55

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Anexas' client has witnessed a significant reduction in work order response times since adopting DMAIC. Independent search can reduce wait times and enhance customer satisfaction by carefully resolving issues and making data-driven decisions.

The author's bio

?Amitabh Saxena is a Master Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma and a certified PMP and CPHQ professional. With 30+ years of experience, he specializes in process improvement, quality management, and conducting training in these methodologies. As a passionate Data Scientist, he is constantly exploring data-driven approaches and AI to enhance decision-making. On the creative side, he is an author and poet, and his book "The Anexas Story" shares the incredible journey of building his own training and consulting organization. Connect with him to embark on a transformative journey of problem-solving!

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