Format:
PDF (color and black and white)
Size:
8.5" x 11"
Intended audience:
Frontline employees, managers and physicians
Best used:
This poster, for use on bulletin boards, in break rooms and other staff areas, spotlights a team that cut wait times in half by nipping the need for repeat studies.
This poster spotlights a team that cut wait times in half by nipping the need for repeat studies.
Format:
PDF (color and black and white)
Size:
8.5" x 11"
Intended audience:
Frontline employees, managers and physicians
Best used:
This poster, highlighting a team that reduced errors by having two nurses check antibiotic orders, can be placed on bulletin boards, in break rooms and in other staff areas.
This poster highlights a team that reduced missed antibiotic orders by having two nurses check antibiotic orders.
See how huddles have helped Kaiser Permanente teams improve communication, morale and best of all—patient care.
Successful unit-based teams, those that continuously improve performance and lead change, use huddles to share information and stay on top of team business. This video highlights two KP teams that regularly huddle to tackle day-to-day issues, advance performance improvement projects and give "snaps" to colleagues who go the extra mile. See how huddles and snapping have helped these teams improve communication, morale and best of all—patient care.
One-page slide showing how Colorado internal medicine team reduced wait times by shifting duties
Patients and specimen samples showing up without orders was a common occurrence at the East Denver Medical Office lab.
In some cases, orders weren’t in the system because there was confusion between the provider and the nurse about who ordered the test. Other times, patients were directed to the lab without verification of a lab order; and orders simply expired.
This lack of follow-through was inconvenient for the patient, who would have to go back to his or her doctor, or wait for a lab employee to contact the department. In some cases, the patient would have to make a second trip.
So, the East Denver team decided to crack down and got a little creative.
They developed an “enforcement” theme and dressed up in police uniforms to issue citations to “violators” as they tracked patients with no orders.
Departments with the most improvement were honored with coffee and donuts. Those that met the criteria for sustained success were recognized with lunch.
OB/GYN went from 42 “violations” in a seven-week period to 34 in a 10-week period. Pediatrics went from 16 occurrences to a single one in similar time frames.
“At first, we didn’t give them (other departments) the specific data,” lab clinical manager Lucy Tyler says. “Then OB asked for it so we started giving it to everyone.”
The team found by tracking the data, they discovered who needed help, and they worked with that team to solve the problem. By showing each department when they were sending patients and specimens to the lab without orders, they could see they were part of the problem.
In some cases it was a surprise.
“This work supports X-ray and pharmacy, too,” phlebotomist Alma Lahti says. “It’s improving orders in other departments.”
Lab UBT in Colorado worked on a fun and innovative way to eliminate the problem of patients showing up at the lab but the orders weren't in the system.
The folks at the Denver Regional Pharmacy found their unit-based team to be a major improvement over the steering committee it replaced.
Team members found the committee to be unwieldy, and felt it largely bred distrust and miscommunication between union and management.
So, they regrouped.
A major problem they had encountered was the time pharmacy technicians wasted researching prescriptions that weren’t properly "batched." Often missing was the required electronic stamp from a pharmacist that tracks and closes the prescription.
Technicians spent roughly 1-4 hours a day per pharmacy tracking down misbatched prescriptions. The team aimed to cut that time by 50 percent.
"The biggest thing is if you view your situation as a failure you'll never succeed," management co-lead Luanne Petricich says. "When something is not working that's where your opportunity is. Don't be afraid to change something if it's not working."
The team modified the way pharmacists attached their electronic signature. That saved technicians hours of research time and freed them to spend more time with patients. Almost immediately the team saw a drop in the number of prescriptions that needed to be researched.
In the two pharmacies where the team instituted new batching practices, they saw a 75 percent drop in the number of prescriptions requiring research. The new protocol was introduced to 20 pharmacies in the region, and 70 percent of those saw similar gains.
This collaborative effort produced positive results as their projects improved customer service and affordability. The new UBT also gained some hard-earned trust.
Since that success, the regional team has become a model and a sponsor for smaller, pharmacy-specific UBTs launched in the region.
"I like the focus on efficiencies and waste because it ends up translating to a better work environment for employees," Petricich says. "Especially with this project, we found the technicians were doing redundant work that did not provide job satisfaction. So taking that away allowed for more time with patients, which is what many would rather be doing."
Regional Pharmacy UBT in Colorado uses PDSA to improve 'batching' procedure.