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Using Material Pull to Improve a Pharmacy Process |
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by the OhioHealth Process Excellence Department
Would you like to reduce your medication inventory by $60,000 in 4 days?
This article outlines how The Process Excellence department (PEx) at OhioHealth successfully implemented a material pull system in the IV Mixture room of the Pharmacy at Grant Medical Center.
Medications and IV Fluids were being replenished using visual inspections, daily inventory counts and verbal warnings of outages. The area was disorganized, cluttered and was not arranged in an efficient manner. Inventory levels were too high on some medications and too low on others. As a result the department experienced stock outs, expiration and obsolescence of medications, IV fluids and supplies.
The Process
A 12 member team was formed consisting of 5 pharmacists, 3 pharmacy techs, and 4 Process Improvement Specialists. Medications, IV's and supplies were removed from the IV room and taken to an adjacent conference room where item numbers, quantity on hand, historic usage, and other critical information was reviewed by the pharmacists. Full article |
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Improving Medical Equipment Availability at Barnes-Jewish Hospital |
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by Laurie Wolf and Nancy Sigillito
special acknowledgement to Cathy Powers (Clinical Nurse Specialist) for directing this project and Barb Sacakli (Patient Care Operations Supervisor) and Tim Trotter (Hill-Rom Regional Manager) for successfully sustaining this process
For years, a constant struggle existed to get patients at Barnes-Jewish Hospital (BJH) the right medical equipment promptly.
As one nurse described, "our process of providing our patients with necessary equipment was broken. We had no mechanism for tracking equipment that was ordered, no feel for if our inventories are adequate, no follow-up for broken equipment, and most importantly, no way of ensuring that equipment got to patients in a timely manner."
This broken process resulted in a classic "work-around" by nursing staff. In the case of IV pumps, nurses would be fast to claim a pump from a discharged patient's room, do a quick cleaning off the record, and use it for their just-admitted patient. Or, they would go to a neighboring unit to "borrow" one- without really intending to return it. Needless to say, nurses were extremely frustrated at the lack of readily equipment. Full article |
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Centralized Database plus Socialized Medicine equals Distributed Risk |
| By Tamara Wilhite
There are a number of proposals being brought forth to improve our currently chaotic medical services system. One of the greatest problems for care providers in an emergency situation is lack of access to a patient's inclusive medical records. Right now, every physician or specialist's office, hospital and Emergency Room may have its own records for a patient. Every time a patient visits a new practitioner, they must submit a request for the prior medical office to send the records to the new office. If patients are lucky, the old office sends an electronic file to the new doctor, and both are merged into a complete history. Typically a portfolio of paperwork - from patient history charts to test results to HIPAA permission forms - is mailed or faxed to the new office and appended to medical records the patient has already signed. The only place which contains all of a patient's medical data is the insurer. more |
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SHS Member Spotlight: Dr. Jim Benneyan |
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SHS Member Establishes Systems Engineering Center at Northeastern, Takes Leadership Role in VA Multi-University Partnership to Improve Health Care Processes
Under the leadership of Dr. Jim Benneyan, Northeastern University has partnered with the New England Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system to establish a new systems engineering center that hopes to dramatically improve quality and performance throughout VA hospitals. He was also recently appointed Executive Director of the New England Healthcare Engineering Partnership (NEHCEP). Funded by a total of $3.4 million per year in grant and matching funding from the VA, the NEHCEP is one of four new Veterans Engineering Research Centers, partnering with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Worcester Polytechnic Institute , and several VA centers of excellence in order to design improved processes throughout the VA and U.S. health care system. Read more |
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Call for Nominations! SHS/HIMSS Excellence in Healthcare Management Engineering/Process Improvement Award |
All nominations must be submitted by October 30, 2009
Purpose:
This award is to honor the individual, who in the opinion of the Boards of Directors of the Society for Health Systems and Healthcare Information and Managements Systems Society, has best demonstrated leadership in implementing significant synergies between the process improvements and information technology profession. These contributions may be of a professional or technical nature, and may include research or development of improved processes (with or without technology), or exemplary contribution to the professional society. The award will be co-presented by SHS and HIMSS during the annual SHS Conference and the HIMSS Award Banquet annually. There may be an exception occasionally where this award may be given to two individuals. Criteria and nomination form |
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SHS Website - Volunteer Input and Assistance Needed |
| The SHS website is an important resource to our membership and serves as the "face" of our organization to non-members. We are seeking a few volunteers to review the existing SHS website and provide recommendations for improvement. We are interested in knowing what users like and don't like about the current site; what users like about other websites they frequent; feedback with the organization/layout of the SHS site; etc. If you are interested in assisting, please contact Todd Schneider. | |
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Upcoming Seminars |
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Courses held at IIE Headquarters in Norcross, Georgia
Corporate Training
These courses are offered as a corporate training program and can be customized to meet your company's needs. For more information, contact IIE Director of Continuing Education and Program Development Larry Aft, P.E., (770) 349-1130.
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| SHS/ASQ Joint Conference |
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Society for Health Systems and ASQ Joint Conference
Feb. 25 - 28
Atlanta, Georgia
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Thanks to the SHS Newsletter Team: |
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Aaron Kanne
Bart Sellers
Priya Khatri
For information about contributing content to the newsletter, contact Tom Best. |
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SHS Suggested Readings and References |
SHS is proud to introduce a list of over 400 suggested readings and references. This list has been developed by Charlie Protzman, Managing Member of the Business Improvement Group, LLC over the course of his career. He shares it voluntarily for the SHS membership, and we thank him for this invaluable contribution. The list can be downloaded via this link. It is sorted alphabetically by title within categories. Naturally, SHS envisions the list growing over time, with input from the entire SHS membership. Please submit your thoughts, reviews, or any additions to Ron McDade. Enjoy! |
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Make Plans to Attend!
IIE 2010 Annual Conference and Expo |
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June 5 - 9
Fiesta Americana Grand Coral Beach Hotel
Cancun, Mexico |
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Join HME Listserv |
An Excellent Networking Resource
Did you know a Health Care Management Engineering listserv is available through the SHS Web site? This moderated discussion group is for announcements for health care management engineers and others. Subscribe here today. | |
