1. Eliminate waste. Ms. Evans says eliminating waste wherever possible, even in the design of the facility, has helped the surgery center achieve efficiency as well as patient satisfaction. Efficiency has helped the center tremendously increase the number of patients physicians and staff see in one day.
“The building was originally going to be 100,000 square feet, and we decided that was too big,” she says. “So we went back to the drawing board, got the physicians, nursing staff and administration involved and ended up with a 75,000-square-foot surgery center so now patients, their families and employees are no longer affected by long walks.
“Also, when a child goes to the induction room before the procedure, the child falls asleep with the parents right there,” she says. “There’s a small travel distance from the induction room to the procedure room, and then the child is wheeled straight out to post-op room. Saving square footage saves travel time, makes the experience much better for patients and their families and allows physicians and staff to see more patients.”
2. Establish quality and patient satisfaction metrics. By establishing metrics that measure quality of care as well as patient satisfaction, Bellevue is not only able to continuously work on various areas of improvement but also demonstrate to the community its commitment to quality care.
“We have metrics related to quality and a lot of that quality is measured by our patients and their families, so we use our patient satisfaction surveys as a measurement for improvement,” Ms. Evans says. “In addition to patient satisfaction, we also have a metric related to decreasing costs and timely access to care, which measures how easy it is for someone to get to our facility, how quickly their phone calls are answered, getting appointments made quickly and so on. Safety is our fourth dimension of quality. We’re always looking ways to reduce readmission, surgical site errors and so on.”
3. Engage physicians and staff. Ms. Evans says fostering a sense of urgency and competition among Bellevue physicians and staff helps the center stay focused on maintaining high quality patient-centered care.
“Our employees are fundamental in our quality improvement efforts,” she says. “Our employees get an engagement score from our yearly survey to measure their performance. When I first started doing this, there was a lot of resistance. This began to make sense to them as they began to see that, over time, they really were making improvements. If I post a quicker turnover time for one physician, they all start getting competitive.”
Learn more about Bellevue Clinic and Surgery Center.
