By Sean Leslie

Victoria Hospital’s ER slashes inefficiencies

Apr 20, 2013 | 8:22 AM

A week-long rapid improvement workshop has improved service at Victoria Hospital’s emergency department said health officials at a meeting on Friday.

Since Monday, hospital staff and a rapid process improvement team have been identifying areas in need of streamlining and then implementing changes to those areas.

The main objective of reducing the amount of time between when a patient is admitted to the time they get to their bed on the nursing unit, was achieved, said Prince Albert Parkland Health Region CEO Cecile Hunt.

“This has really improved the patient’s journey. It frees beds in the emergency room for the next patient that needs care and it gets that person who is in the emergency department to an appropriate setting for their ongoing care,” said Hunt.

Several aspects of emergency care were explored by the workshop including the method of allocating beds, discharging patients as close to 11 a.m. as possible and quickly preparing rooms for the next patients.

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The workshop helped to reveal a communication issue that was having a large impact on these areas, said vice-president of integrated health services Carol Gregoryk.
“We had beds sitting, waiting for over three hours for a patient that was sitting in emergency waiting,” said Gregoryk.

After identifying this inefficiency, a new standard was put into place that would ensure that emergency department staff is made aware of a vacant bed within 30 minutes.

Over the last two days, with staff following this new procedure, a substantial reduction was seen in waiting times, said Gregoryk, “We reduced the process where the bed was sitting empty for over three hours to 44 minutes.”

The workshop was also able to achieve marked improvement in getting discharged patients out before 11 a.m. “We had 100 per cent of people that were being discharged left before 11 o’clock,” said Gregoryk.

Changes to housekeeping practices also reduced the time it takes to prepare a room from 37 minutes to 15 minutes, which again, decreases the amount of time emergency patients spend waiting for a bed.

Gregoryk was impressed with the amount of improvement that occurred over the week, “Absolutely more than we thought was possible, we didn’t think we’d have the success that we’ve had.”

The achievement stands out because of how unpredictable an emergency department can be. Victoria Hospital’s takes in about 80 patients everyday, said Gregoryk, which makes the implementation of such substantive changes all the more difficult.

The rapid improvement process workshops will continue in other areas of Victoria Hospital. They’re part of a province-wide initiative aimed at improving health care in Saskatchewan.

“Individuals who learn skills and use and practice using the tools and methodologies around quality improvement really can make a significant difference,” said Hunt.

sleslie@panow.com

On Twitter: @_seanleslie