Cross-Site Scheduling of Endoscopic Procedures Improves Efficiency While Maintaining Patient Safety

Abstract

Efficiencies in call volume and ASA led to substantial time and money savings. Because of the continued involvement of multiple work groups, changes were seen as favorable rather than burdensome. Such technology could be used across other disciplines where routine procedures or tests require specific scheduling knowledge.

Process improvement for a complex dual medical procedure

“…The use of a complex scheduler has been used to improve scheduling efficiency for complex GI procedures elsewhere. 15 These changes led to more clarity for the schedulers, fewer interoffice phone calls and ultimately a simplified and streamlined scheduling process. Success was determined informally by the schedulers and the process improvement team’s assessment of usability.…”

“…This could be done by setting up a daily query where scheduling accuracy and call metrics (time to answer call and duration of call) could be collected in order to quantify improvements in scheduling. 15 There may have been value in using the hard modelling technique of discreet event simulation to track and simulate the patient journey in order quantify the impact of our intervention. 17 Collecting patient outcome and satisfaction data would also have been valuable, and a research project collecting that data would strengthen the conclusion that this process improvement positively impacted patient care.…”