Service

• Creating call lists for patients at risk for hypertension
• Targeting diabetic patients, who often overlook high blood pressure symptoms
• Having clinical assistants chip in to check blood pressure and outreach

What can your team do to reach out to patients proactively? What else could your team do to help patients manage chronic conditions?

• Creating a "tick sheet" for staff to note how much paper and toner is wasted
• Figuring how often IT is called and how many patients are affected
• Getting authorization for newer and more efficient printers

What can your team do to build a business case for better equipment? What else could your team do to reduce wasted time and effort?

• Using a checklist of important topics as a teaching tool for new parents at discharge with their new baby
• Speaking with them at a time when they are most likely to understand and take in the information
• Creating a script for nurses that doesn't feel rehearsed or fake

What can your team do to improve your communication with patients?

• Making phone calls to help make appointments and answer questions
• Creating a "road map" on how to navigate Kaiser Permanente and utilize services
• Greeting new members when they come in and provide useful information

What can your team do to welcome new members? And what could your team do to leverage its members' unique strengths and knowledge?

• Sorting and metering mail at fewer locations
• Centralizing facilities mail processing for greater efficiency
• Adding meters, offering overtime, and negotiating lower rates for needed vendor services

What can your team do to consolidate supplies or services? What else could your team do to reduce waste?

• Opening the lab a half-hour earlier to prevent long lines at the open of business
• Shifting work schedules and staggering lunch hours to have more staff covering available time
• Cross-training staff to register patients, process specimens and draw blood

 What can your team do to improve its workflow? 

• Identifying the problem of lab wait times and its root causes
• Employing a "one-on-one" style of service so more staffers help reduce the queue
• Having lab technicians handle patients from check-in to blood draw

 What can your team do to find out the root cause of a nagging problem?