PROCESS IMPROVEMENT PROPOSAL: DME ISSUANCE IN A CORRECTIONAL FACILITY
Latoya Rone, BA, MS HCI student and Aaron Yee, BSN, RN, MSN HCI student
Faculty advisor: Brenda Boone, PhD, RN
Faculty advisor: Brenda Boone, PhD, RN
Project purpose:
By using Lean Six Sigma methodology, this process improvement project aims to provide a prison facility with high-level workflow improvement recommendations to aid in meeting their 95% Durable Medical Equipment (DME) compliance target.
Background:
Current timely issuance of DME to patients is far below the institution’s target goal. They are facing potential negative patient outcomes due to delayed DME issuance as a result of a poorly designed workflow process which is prone to errors and unnecessary staff rework.
Project approach:
Process mapping will be used to analyze the system of steps, expose waste, and guide a more efficient design. A value-added (VA) versus non value-added (NVA) steps table will identify which parts of the workflow are causing the most waste and inform how the future state process map should look.
Deliverables/Outcomes/metric categories compared:
The project will use the facility’s transitional process map to create a VA versus NVA steps table and a desired future state process map. These will demonstrate how the project has achieved its target DME compliance.
Discussion:
A streamlined approach to the current workflow process will reduce errors and negative patient outcomes, helping to achieve the project goal of timely issuance of DME. Moreover, staff rework and wasted resources result from delayed DME issuance.
Next steps/opportunities:
Implementation of workflows will contribute to the impacts of annual hard and soft savings, which include labor savings and production gains. This will be followed by a true financial analysis that addresses costs of workflow implementation.
By using Lean Six Sigma methodology, this process improvement project aims to provide a prison facility with high-level workflow improvement recommendations to aid in meeting their 95% Durable Medical Equipment (DME) compliance target.
Background:
Current timely issuance of DME to patients is far below the institution’s target goal. They are facing potential negative patient outcomes due to delayed DME issuance as a result of a poorly designed workflow process which is prone to errors and unnecessary staff rework.
Project approach:
Process mapping will be used to analyze the system of steps, expose waste, and guide a more efficient design. A value-added (VA) versus non value-added (NVA) steps table will identify which parts of the workflow are causing the most waste and inform how the future state process map should look.
Deliverables/Outcomes/metric categories compared:
The project will use the facility’s transitional process map to create a VA versus NVA steps table and a desired future state process map. These will demonstrate how the project has achieved its target DME compliance.
Discussion:
A streamlined approach to the current workflow process will reduce errors and negative patient outcomes, helping to achieve the project goal of timely issuance of DME. Moreover, staff rework and wasted resources result from delayed DME issuance.
Next steps/opportunities:
Implementation of workflows will contribute to the impacts of annual hard and soft savings, which include labor savings and production gains. This will be followed by a true financial analysis that addresses costs of workflow implementation.