Team-Tested Practices

• Assessing the problem and working together to a solution
• Converting extra closet space into a dressing room for patients
• Realizing even small solutions pay large dividends

 What can your team do to use your physical space more efficiently? 

• 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?

• Placing a Gratitude Jar in the entrance of the department (a prominent position)
• “Planting” a Gratitude Tree on a wall
• Buying playful fruit-shaped sticky notes to write their gratitude messages and post on the tree 

What can your team do to measure and reduce stress? 

• 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?

• Establishing a baseline measurement for how long moms are getting skin-to-skin contact with their new babies
• Creating talking points of the benefits for both new baby and mother about this critical bonding
• Communicating with staff to ensure a minimum of 60 minutes of skin-to-skin contact occurs post delivery

 What can your team do to explain the "why" behind what you are doing? 

• 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?

• Showing providers how to code for accidents and workplace injuries
• Teaching pharmacies how to ID medications related to injuries and accidents
• Using electronic drug information system for better cross-referencing

 What can your team do create smoother workflows? And how could your team work better with other UBTs to improve performance? 

• 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?