Team-Tested Practices

• Scheduling doctors to perform anesthesia only (which requires a physician) four days a week, instead of five
• Scheduling nurses to perform sedation (which does not require a physician)
• Scheduling patients requiring anesthesia on the days physicians are available

What can your team do to save time and lower costs in your department? What else could your team do to be more strategic? 

• Huddling before the clinics open for the day to determine who will buddy up in groups of two.
• Spending the day communicating with each other how the clinics’ schedules are progressing and finding out from medical assistants and nurses whether any providers are running behind.
• Delivering information to patients on waiting room delays that is as specific as possible.

What can your team do to communicate better with each other and patients? What else could your team do to make the day go smoothly?

• Tracking slide turnaround times on a white board
• Discussing turnaround times and quality assurance issues in team huddles
• Meeting weekly with the UBT’s sponsors to help with engagement and remove barriers
• Including pathologists to facilitate better communication between staff and physicians

What can your team do to remove barriers in your daily work? What else could your team do to use huddles to improve quality? 

• Speaking up immediately and “stopping the line” if a radiologic technologist encounters any deviation from workflow or a risk to patient safety.
• Filling out a simple, accessible form which the UBT then uses to address the issue that arose.

What can your team do to create a culture of Speaking Up in your department? What else could your team do to ensure follow up after a safety incident?

• Setting up a fast track area with four patient rooms at the front of the department
• Agreeing to use standardized criteria for triage
• Keeping patients in treatment rooms only while being treated; waiting occurs in the fast track waiting area

What can your team do to identify areas that need improvement? What else could your team do to shorten the time patients have to wait for service?

• Creating a wait list for patients who need to schedule surgeries
• Assigning a full-time employee to manage the wait list
• Using openings in the schedule to squeeze in emergency patients

What can your team do to improve patient satisfaction and efficiencies in your department? What else could your team do to relieve scheduling backlogs?

• Monitoring incoming same-day prescriptions and moving them ahead of the line to be processed immediately
• Using clear bags for same-day prescriptions, instead of standard white bags, so those orders stand out for pharmacy technicians
• Encouraging patients to refill their prescriptions through mail-order to reduce the load on in-house pharmacists

What can your team do to be innovative problem solvers? What else could your team do to increase patient satisfaction?

• Creating a questionnaire and training staff on the new process
• Partnering with the business office supervisor and asking the receptionists to hand the form to all GI procedure patients at check-in
• Decreasing/minimizing the RN time to review the entire document in detail and focus on patients' specific questions
• Giving patients a choice between RN discharge or MD discharge

What can your team do to improve efficiencies in your department? What else could your team do to help shorten patients' wait times?

• Measuring level of staff engagement with patients and successful screenings
• Coaching and peer-to-peer training of staff
• Building physician awareness and education

What can your team do to increase staff and patient engagement? What type of coaching does your team need to be succesful? 

• Printing out registration slips with questions regarding smoking, so smokers can identify themselves up front
• Attaching the registration slips to clipboards, so when patients hand the materials to the genetics counselors, the counselors can provide smoking cessation information

What can your team do to help members know what type of programs are available to them?