Wait times

Lab Team Pokes at Processes and Gets Results
  • Documenting and tracking the time to complete each step in the process  
  • Identifying workflow bottlenecks
  • Reviewing staffing and tweaking schedules

What can your team do to examine and improve your workflow? How do you think that would affect care and service for our member and patients?

Laureen Lazarovici Tue, 07/30/2019 - 14:32

Tips for Reducing Wait Times

Submitted by Laureen Lazarovici on Tue, 04/17/2018 - 16:10
Region
Program-wide
Keywords
long lines
waiting
late
Topics
Service
Role
Frontline Managers
Frontline Physicians
Frontline Workers
Facility Leaders
UBT Consultants & UPRs
UBT Co-Leads
UBT Sponsors
Request Number
ED-1359
Long Teaser

Show our members you know their time is valuable. Try out these tips for reducing wait time and improving efficiency. 

Communicator (reporters)
Laureen Lazarovici
Photos & Artwork (reporters)
Only use image in listings (editors)
not listing only
Highlighted stories and tools (reporters)
Download the Tip Sheet

Want a colorful tip sheet with these ideas to hand out and post on bulletin boards? Download one here!

10 Essential Tips for Reducing Wait Times
Status
Developing
Tracking (editors)
Story content (editors)
Headline (for informational purposes only)
Tips for Reducing Wait Times
Deck
Show our members you value their time
Story body part 1

Who hasn’t experienced the frustration of a long wait to get a prescription filled or a lab test done, or to see a physician who’s running behind schedule? To help keep Kaiser Permanente patients and members happy, many unit-based teams are tackling this issue and finding ways to reduce wait times.

  1. Raise awareness of the problem by sharing data about the department’s wait times and patient satisfaction scores with unit-based team members.
  2. Help your co-workers understand it is everyone’s responsibility to be attentive to members who have been waiting for long periods of time — and recognize co-workers who do this well.
  3. Inform patients of delays by having the receptionist let them know if a physician is running late.
  4. Provide members and patients who have been waiting for extended periods of time with individual attention and updated information by “rounding” in the waiting area.
  5. Put a focus on wait times by posting patient arrival times on exam room doors or having pharmacists call out the wait time in the pharmacy.
  6. Utilize an “all hands on deck” approach, so when wait times hit a certain threshold, all available staff members drop what they’re doing and help reduce long lines.
  7. Consider shifting employees’ schedules to ensure adequate staffing during peak hours and at the start of the day, so you don't fall behind from the beginning.*
  8. Promote alternatives to in-person visits such as prescription refills by mail or email, phone or video consultations with doctors.
  9. Rethink who does what if part of the reason for long wait times is that only employees in particular job category are allowed to do a certain task.*
  10. Create a quiet zone in pharmacies to reduce distractions for the primary filling technician.

*  Consult with local unions to ensure proposed changes are in line with the contracts.

 

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A Million Dollar Fix

Region
Southern California
Keywords
San Diego
Topic
Affordability
Request Number
VID-155_Lets_Try_Something_Different
Long Teaser

A San Diego pharmacy team saves $1 million by better managing its inventory of specialty medications.

Communicator (reporters)
Non-LMP
Editor (if known, reporters)
Non-LMP
Video Media (reporters)
Download File URL
http://content.jwplatform.com/videos/NbIlNDQF-iq13QL4R.mp4
Running Time
2:15
Status
Released
Tracking (editors)
Date of publication

A San Diego pharmacy team saves $1 million by better managing its inventory of specialty medications.

Produced by Sherry Crosby

Edited by Sherry Crosby and Kellie Applen

Learn more about this team in Hank. 

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Let's Try Something Different

Region
Northern California
Keywords
Sacramento
Topic
Service
Request Number
VID-155_Lets_Try_Something_Different
Long Teaser

See how a free to speak culture at the Sacramento pharmacies helped unit-based team members shorten wait times.

Communicator (reporters)
Non-LMP
Editor (if known, reporters)
Tyra Ferlatte
Video Media (reporters)
Download File URL
http://content.jwplatform.com/videos/ZlVVUZkp-iq13QL4R.mp4
Running Time
2:15
Status
Done
Tracking (editors)
Date of publication

See how a free to speak culture at the Sacramento pharmacies helped unit-based team members reduce wait times.

Produced by Kellie Applen.

Shot and edited by CrushPix Video Production Company.

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Go on Point to Reduce Missing Lab Orders

  • Assigning a point person to work with physicians and departments to ensure patients have the needed lab orders
  • Coordinating efforts across the multiple departments that engage in a patient's treatment
  • Assigning a backup assistant to ensure the point duties are covered

What can your team do to identify where things "fall through the cracks"? What else could your team do to put the patient at the center? 

 

Early Shift Ensures On-Time Labs

  • Having lab assistants, not runners, pick up blood samples at 6 a.m. and drop off specimens every half-hour
  • Using clinical lab scientists from other departments to help process blood in the morning
  • Moving weekend shifts for clinical lab scientists to 6 a.m. instead of 9 a.m.

 What can your team do to shift its workflow for the benefit of patients? 

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