Adaptation of a Lean Tool Across Surgical Units to Improve Patient Experience

High reliability organizations (HROs) sustain consistently excellent outcomes over time. Health care systems need to eliminate major quality failures to become reliable.

Practice variations, unstructured leader rounds, and unfavorable patient experience outcomes with Responsiveness of Hospital Staff prompted leaders to adopt Kamishibai cards (K-cards).

Evidence-based practices (EBPs) such as timeliness of answering call lights, purposeful rounding, communication, and engaging patients were used to develop Responsiveness K-cards.

Responsiveness K-cards established standard work for staff responsiveness and audited process compliance. Findings determined what areas needed improvement, and leaders engaged frontline staff in practice changes.

Percentile rank for Responsiveness of Hospital Staff had a sustained increase. Four of 6 hospital units using Responsiveness K-cards achieved 80% rank or better in every patient experience domain for the entire fiscal year.

K-cards use HRO principles to standardize practice and improve outcomes. They encourage continuous improvement, which supports the sustainability of EBPs.