Decreasing Wait Times and Increasing Patient Satisfaction: A Lean Six Sigma Approach

Area of Science:

• Quality Improvement
• Healthcare Management
• Patient Experience

Background:

• Patient satisfaction scores in vascular interventional radiology were low.
• Key issues identified were long wait times for registration and procedures.
• Low scores were also noted for patient likelihood to recommend the department.

Purpose of the Study:

• To decrease patient wait times within the vascular interventional radiology department.
• To improve overall patient satisfaction scores.
• Utilize the Lean Six Sigma DMAIC framework for a structured quality improvement initiative.

Main Methods:

• Implementation of the Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control (DMAIC) framework.
• A pre-/post-intervention study design was employed to assess changes.
• Focus on optimizing registration and test/treatment workflows.

Main Results:

• Statistically significant reduction in patient wait times (P < .0019).
• Marked improvement in registration wait time satisfaction (17 to 99 percentiles).
• Enhanced satisfaction with test/treatment wait times (19 to 60 percentiles) and likelihood to recommend (6 to 97 percentiles).

Conclusions:

• Lean Six Sigma (DMAIC) proved effective in enhancing patient satisfaction.
• The framework successfully decreased operational wait times in vascular interventional radiology.
• The project demonstrated a significant positive impact on patient experience and service recommendation.