Going Lean to Improve the Patient Experience in a High-Throughput Brachytherapy Program.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Process Improvement
• Oncology

Background:

• High-volume brachytherapy departments face challenges in patient wait times and operational efficiency.
• Inefficient scheduling processes and operating room (OR) utilization can impact patient care and staff workload.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the impact of a targeted application of Lean methodology in a high-volume brachytherapy department.
• To achieve significant and sustained improvements benefiting both patients and staff.

Main Methods:

• A 3-day Kaizen (rapid improvement) Event was conducted involving staff and physicians.
• Goals included reducing same-day patient wait times, decreasing staff hours for scheduling, and increasing OR utilization.
• Implementation involved developing a standard booking process and introducing procedure checkpoints.

Main Results:

• Average same-day patient wait times were reduced by 37 minutes and 2 seconds.
• Staff hours dedicated to weekly OR schedule creation were significantly reduced.
• Brachytherapy operating room (OR) utilization increased from 59% to 97%.

Conclusions:

• Lean methodology, emphasizing measurement, standardization, simplification, and staff participation, effectively addressed barriers to change.
• The Brachytherapy Leadership team successfully improved department quality metrics.
• A targeted application of Lean is recommended, with expansion based on quality research or committee initiatives.