Service

• 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?

• Creating a script to educate parents about the type and severity of pain their newborns might experience
• Articulating clearly what steps health care providers would take to manage babies’ pain
• Educating parents about pain management at admission to NICU instead of waiting until the issue arose

What can your team do to be proactive in keeping patients and their families informed during stressful times?

• Implementing a quiet zone to allow staff to better concentrate
• Shifting work schedules so more staff are available during peak hours
• Communicating one on one with pharmacy staff about changes being made and why, and what data show

What can your team do to effectively respond to workflow and target changes? What else could your team do to meet targeted goals?

• Giving injections in the exam room, rather than the injection clinic
• Limiting the choice for physicians to two versions of the same vaccine to choose from—instead of several
• Huddling among medical assistants and physicians once or twice a day to determine which of their incoming patients need vaccines. Medical assistants then have the shots ready for those patients

• Providing loaner blood pressure kits to hypertensive patients who had trouble traveling to the clinic.
• Mobilizing patients to phone their providers every day with their blood pressure readings, furnishing the information needed in just a couple of minutes, without filling up an entire appointment slot.
• Increasing the number of free appointments available for blood pressure checks.

• Standardizing the workflow for collecting specimens and ordering lab tests
• Educating physicians about the medical assistants’ workflow and the couriers’ pick-up schedules
• Treating errors as an opportunity for coaching rather than discipline

What can your team do to collect and analyze data to make workflow improvements? What else could your team do to encourage everyone to speak up and share concerns, ideas and suggestions?