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the 325th Medical Group recently engaged in a Lean for Healthcare training course and Rapid Improvement Event. (U.S. Air Force courtesy photo)
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Purpose of Rapid Improvement Event at Tyndall
Posted 3/21/2012 Updated 3/21/2012
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Commentary by Col. Paul Skala
325th Medical Group commander
3/21/2012 - TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- The 325th Medical Group recently engaged in a Lean for Healthcare training course and Rapid Improvement Event. The Lean concept focuses on the elimination of work flow barriers, redundancies, and waste. This, in turn, promotes highly effective and efficient medical processes and systems, while meeting the patient's needs. The event was facilitated by Mr. Keith Leitner and Ms. Lea Anne Law of the University of Tennessee Center for Executive Education.
Training was provided to senior and mid-level subject matter experts within the 325th MDG, to include Maj. Julie Pierce, 325th MDG family health flight commander, Capt. Jeremy Hicks, 325th MDG health care integrator, and Mr. Irad Gillett, 325th MDG practice manager and deputy administrator. With this educational training, 325th MDG process owners, commanders, and supervisors will be able to implement process improvements to further align with the Air Force's efficiency vision and its overall goals for streamlining medical operations while improving patient care and safety.
Mr. Leitner and Ms. Law provided on-site support to the clinic's family health team, who in turn were led by Major Pierce, Maj. Tristan Sevdy, 325th MDG family health doctor, Capt. Monica Gomez-Arenas, 325th MDG practice manager, Capt. Hicks, and Mr. Gillett. The entire team focused on current challenges faced by the clinic. Emphasis was placed on exploring the clinic's family health team patient processing, in an effort to optimize throughput, maximize the recapture of downtown network referrals, as well as the optimization of the referral management coordination process itself. The referral management team was spearheaded by Capt. Kris Walker, 325th MDG TRICARE operations and patient administration flight commander, Ms. Gwen Radford, 325th MDG clinic referral manager, Staff Sgt. Bradley Parker, 325th NCO in charge of patient referrals, and Ms. Cindy Hix, manager of the local TRICARE service center. Support was also provided in implementation of Lean, Six Sigma, Business Process Reengineering and Theory of Constraints efforts in a distinct Air Force Healthcare context. Implementation efforts focused on the application of Lean concepts being focused across the majority of Air Force Medical Service and Air Force Medical Operations Agency processes and operations, thus resulting in best practices that can be utilized by the clinic and exported to other Military Treatment Facility's within the Air Force Medical Service.
The healthcare-specific training course will allow for rapid improvement in patient throughput at the clinic and beyond. Standards have been identified for improvements in patient flow. They will result in increased patient satisfaction by increasing flow times and minimizing non-value-added time as patients move through the Tyndall healthcare system. Additionally, patient processing and referral management designs were conceived by our team that will improve patient throughput in the existing Tyndall healthcare system.
Key Performance Improvement initiatives that the RIE team considered were current patient throughput, clinical culture, referral processes, and personnel training for staff transfers, replacements, and deployment. Areas for immediate improvements in a clinical setting were identified and implementation strategies were put into action by Staff Sgt. Desmond Scott, 325th NCO in charge of family health, Technical Sgt. Donovan Olinc, 325th MDG NCO in charge of pediatrics, and Airman 1st Class Benjamin Crespo, 325th MDG medical technician who were given key roles deploying the identified improvement initiatives.
Work groups identified and designed implementation for a variety of improvements, including exam room, procedure room, and process standardization; realignment to improve utilization of medical technicians, nurses and providers; and medical team scheduling to increase patient flow and decrease wait times.
The UT Center for Executive Education is well-known in the healthcare community for its award-winning Masters of Business Administration for physicians, Lean-based education for healthcare professionals and teams, and custom training and RIEs designed specifically for military healthcare systems and facilities.
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