Create a Surgery Wait List and Serve More Patients

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?

Faced with an unwieldy number of patients waiting for surgery, a Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery department made a wait list for patients who needed to be scheduled for surgery. To help with the new chore, they assigned an employee to manage it. The results were immediate as the team saw a drop from 150 patients waiting for surgery per month to about 50, and complaints dropped to 0. With no backlog, the full-time employee handles other work and the team has openings in the schedule to accommodate emergency patients.

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TTP Blurb

Dedicated employee shrinks surgery wait list backlog by 70 percent, clearing the way to fit emergency patients into the schedule.

Why This Matters

Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery patients were complaining about the wait for surgery, and the backlog prevented the scheduling of emergency surgeries.

Test of Change

Created a wait list and called patients in order when there was an opening for surgery, so the process was fair to all patients.

Short Teaser

See how one team cleared its backlog.

Medium Teaser

Surgical departments can get busy, but it doesn't help the patient when there is a backlog. See how one team used a wait list for scheduling to free up more time.

Long Teaser

Surgical departments can get busy, but it doesn't help the patient when there is a backlog. See how one team used a wait list for scheduling to free up more time.

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Team-Tested Practices

Landing Page Title

Create Surgery Wait List

Topics

Affordability

Patient Safety

Quality

Service

Communicator

Jennifer Gladwell

Editor (if known)