A Hospital in Need
Improving Hospital Operations
Quick turnaround project to uncover opportunities for improved care team support so they can provide care to patients effectively and efficiently.
Details about the project...
Background
Considerations
Opportunity
Based on anecdotal data, a large-scale hospital (1 million square feet, regional hub for many specialties) was suffering from employee dissatisfaction, slow task times, communication breakdowns and supply scarcity.
Opportunity
Considerations
Opportunity
Help local hospital leadership identify and solve problems.
This project was highly visible with local and national leadership participating in research activities in effort to help understand and address hospital challenges.
New innovations at this hospital could lead to improvements at hospitals across the enterprise.
Considerations
Considerations
Considerations
Research and related activities needed to be completed over the course of two days.
Because the problem space is unknown and spread across a large hospital system, research needed to be holistic, repeatable and actionable.
My process...
Planning
Data Analysis
Execution
I worked with Stakeholders to understand access to staff, facilities and expectations.
I designed a repeatable process for researchers to tour facilities and collect data, conducted qualitative interviews with staff, and led a design thinking workshop with leadership to uncover the staff experience, and collaboratively identify and prioritize opportunities.
Execution
Data Analysis
Execution
I gathered a team of researchers to tour facilities and ask foundational questions.
I led the same group to conduct multiple concurrent interviews with staff, while leadership observed, to gather the qualitative data needed to uncover the barriers to providing optimal patient care.
Data Analysis
Data Analysis
Data Analysis
As a research team, we documented each data item to prepare for a design thinking session with leadership.
During the design thinking session leadership, staff representatives and the research team went through a series of exercises to codify, analyze and prioritize the data.
Analysis resulted in a set of actionable takeaways for leadership.
Findings & Outcomes
Awareness
Finding: Anecdotal information was validated and more importantly, unknown challenges were uncovered.
Outcome: An engaged leadership team connected to the day-to-day challenges of their staff.
Tools
Finding: Lack of tool integration requires duplicate and unnecessary manual tasks for staff.
Outcome: Technical evaluation conducted to identify possible opportunities for tool integration.
Communications
Finding: Communication tools were found to be inconsistent, teams lacked 2-way communications, and WiFi was unreliable .
Outcome: Wifi upgrade was expedited and a new hospital communications system was considered.
Access
Finding: Limited access to electronic medical records forces some staff to use creative workarounds.
Outcome: EMR access was reassessed.
Equipment
Finding: Inpatient pharmacy requires additional workstations.
Outcome: Increased the number of inpatient pharmacy workstations.
Digital Transformation
Finding: Teams were relying on paper-based, unstandardized manual processes that were time consuming and led to errors.
Outcome: Opportunities for digital transformation were investigated to make information more reliable and accessible.