Reducing room turnaround time at a regional hospital

Room turnaround time is a vital measure of performance for a number of service industries. For hospitals, reducing the room turnaround time leads to increased revenues as well as increased patient satisfaction. If a room is ready sooner, a waiting patient is required to spend less time in the emergency department. This article explores one hospital's approach to reduce room turnaround time. Process-mapping techniques as well as heuristic approaches integrated into an existing bed-tracking system are examined. The article also explores the practical steps the hospital took to improve room turnaround time. Infection control is a requirement for any hospital; therefore, an examination of the current room-cleaning procedures is included to verify that the improved room turnaround time did not come at the expense of infection control. Using initial data from 2004 and current data from 2008, the magnitude of the reduction in room turnaround time is analyzed.