How to Master Patient Flow

You can master patient flow by realizing it is a process that you can improve. Give regular attention to the concerns and actions of patients, staff and medical professionals about patient flow. To meet your objectives for efficient patient flow times and procedures, explore the present flow process for bottlenecks and other problems, identify and initiate improvements and test the results.

Instructions

• 1

  Research current patient flow times and procedures. Identify areas where patients, staff or doctors and nurses complain about how long it takes to register patients or how long they must wait for their next medical procedure. Conduct studies on samples of patients in critical areas, such as the emergency department, to determine how much time passes after triage until they are treated or moved to an inpatient bed. In less critical, but important areas, such as pediatric clinics, conduct surveys to determine family attitudes toward waiting times.

  Identify bottlenecks that cause unnecessary delay, making the facility use and time of medical professionals less efficient. Look at how examination rooms are equipped and utilized. Determine that registration and vital sign collection areas are located correctly, records are immediately available and a staff member is present to transfer patients to their next procedure.

• 2

  Obtain senior managers' support and maintain communication with them about your objectives and initial findings. Form a small team of representatives from different departments who hold dissimilar jobs. To the extent of their available time, give them data collection tasks to perform and review. Test your next steps against their advice about how much support or resistance you can expect. Persuade them to communicate what you are learning about the issues to their co-workers.

• 3

  Review your data with the team and prepare changes that are most likely to be useful and not the cause of new problems. You might decide to have medical records staff pull and deliver all patient records to the appropriate nurses stations the night before patients' appointments.

  Sometimes you can make all the changes at once, but not always. Prepare an order for initiating the changes and a time line for starting each of them. One change may depend on another. Moving the location of an activity requires first making the new space available.

• 4

  Work with all the decision-makers and department personnel affected by the proposed changes. Prepare everyone, including patients and their families, for the changes. This is a critical step to which you must devote sufficient time and effort. Attend departmental meetings to overcome resistance to changes by demonstrating the benefits to themselves, their patients and the institution. Talk to individuals who express concerns alone or in small groups. Post notices about changes where patients can see them.

• 5

  Evaluate the patient flow after changes have been implemented. Adjust procedures where needed. Provide feedback to ensure personnel don't slip back into old habits. Perform follow-up assessments at regular intervals and keep senior managers informed of the results.