Skip to content

Lean management optimisation of the patient care pathway in an onco-haematology outpatient hospital

Pdf

PDF Icon

European Statement

Introductory Statements and Governance

Author(s)

Florent MARTY, Sephora BELO-KIBABU, Driss CHAOUI, Jean-Luc PONS, Romy LINOSSIER-ROCHER

Why was it done?

Over the last few years, French healthcare establishments have been moving towards a more ambulatory approach to medical care. The growing number of patients treated in OPH has necessitated a reorganisation of these units. Staff at the onco-haematology OPH and the team at the centralised cytotoxic preparation unit in our hospital have reported organisational problems affecting the care pathway for patients admitted to the unit, leading to excessive delays in treatment and long waiting times for patients. Waiting time is one of the best measures of the quality of care provided.

What was done?

The project is to improve the overall patient flow within the outpatient hospital (OPH) service by reducing so-called non-value-added and compressible waiting times, without affecting the quality of patient care. This should have an impact on the flow of onco-haematology patients and therefore enable the OPH to operate more smoothly. Improvement actions must be simple, quick, easy to implement and inexpensive.

How was it done?

Data collection (waiting times, volume of activity) was carried out using: patient pathway mapping, observation grid, nurse and haematologist questionnaire, Actidiag software. Application of Lean through the development and facilitation of Kaizen workshops. The improvement actions were chosen during a brainstorming session between haematologists, pharmacists and nurses. A new data collection is then carried out and the results compared.

What has been achieved?

The stays of 64 patients were studied before optimization and compared with those of 79 patients after optimization. Improvement actions include : creation of a shared file, installation of a giant screen in the department connected to the new file, anticipation of preparations. Countermeasures reduced overall waiting times by 42%, cutting the patient’s length of stay by 53 minutes. The care time represents 54.6% of the time spent in the OPH, compared with 41.2% previously. This has also enabled the department to take on 18% more patients.

What next?

Healthcare professionals have noted a smoother flow of activity, making the care pathway more fluid and enabling patients to spend less time in the department, without impacting on patient care. This results in better rotation of OPH beds using a simple and easily reproducible method.

×

EAHP Forum

All the EAHP team is working on providing a Forum that can help connect all the members in Conversations and Groups to talk about important matters for the European Hospital Pharmacist.

The Forum will be accessible for all the EAHP members, you don’t have to create a new account to browse and participate.

Conversations and groups

The Conversations will be moderated by our team to provide documents and relevant topics for the community.

The Groups will connect all members that share a category. Members who work on the same assocation, on the same hospital, that have the same role, etc.

Stay tuned for the realase of the forum. Soon on EAHP.