'Human Factor' Critical in Any Successful Hospital Efficiency Program

One of the first “efficiency” experts was Frederick Winslow Taylor, the father of Scientific Management, otherwise known as “Taylorism.” It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to process design.

Its peak influence came in the early 1900s, and many of its seminal concepts are still in play today. These include analysis and synthesis of workflow, improvement measurement, standardization of best practices and the elimination of waste.

But by 1930, Taylorism was obsolete, largely because, while Taylor was good at organizing the workplace, he was bad at human relations. Today’s efficiency-seeking methods, such as lean manufacturing, include respect for workers and fulfillment of their needs as inherent parts of the theory.

One of the reasons TeleTracking’s Avanti® Consulting Services is so successful for clients is that our specialists are former hospital clinicians who never forget where they used to work. They have hands-on experience in patient care and flow redesign, surgical services workflow and hospital asset management. No competitor can match our collective expertise in this regard.

Our Avanti® consultants have an understanding of patient care workflows from both the employee and the management perspectives. This panoramic view helps them to partner with hospital management and staff across all disciplines, forming a collaborative team which attacks the problems of maximizing resources, overcoming capacity constraints, eliminating waste, reducing costs and enhancing revenues.

Our consultants have helped hundreds of hospitals adopt improved workflows and technology to improve patient flow, optimize operating room utilization and maximize the use of assets. Each was a custom engagement suited to a specific client’s needs, because our team also knows that no two hospitals are exactly the same. The departments and services they address include:

• Surgical and Procedure Areas
• Patient Placement/Bed Management
• Transportation Services
• Mobile Asset Management
• Transfer Services

At the core of our services is the discipline of Real-Time Capacity Management, the purpose of which is to optimize all of the underlying systems which govern care delivery. With that as its primary focus, Avanti® experts apply lean principles to each of these systems to create an optimal patient journey from admission to discharge. Supporting this effort are TeleTracking’s Capacity Management Suite™, Orchestrate™, TeleTracking TransferCenter™ and TeleTracking® RTLS solutions.

Consulting engagements may include:

• Patient Throughput / Patient Flow, which compares current process and workflow to best practices in order to develop recommendations which improve patient outcomes
• Centralized Patient Logistics, which combines patient placement, EVS, transport, registration and case management and provides operational protocols so they function as a centralized unit
• OR / Procedural Area Throughput, which reviews procedural pathways in order to provide improvements which increase utilization of those areas
• Transfer Center Design/ Operation, which involves the implementation of best practices to improve admission times for patients being transferred from one level of care to another
• Real-Time Locating System (RTLS) Asset Workflow, which improves hospital-specific asset management by creating optimal equipment flow processes that increase productivity and reduce costs throughout the enterprise

At all times, the human factor is front and center, especially for the patient. Ultimately, our consulting methodology is designed to get patients to the right place at the right time with the right resources. That’s high efficiency care.