Streamlining a Hospital: How One Chief Administrator Raised the Quality of Care and Saved Money at the Same Time

Nearly 100,000 hospital deaths are related to mistakes made while in the hospital, errors also cause 100,000 unnecessary infections. However, one person in Cincinnati changed these statistics. In 1996 a trustee of Children's Hospital in took over as Chief Administrator and since then nothing but improvements have taken place. These have not been a result of major staff replacement, or major changes in schedules or some emphasis on a mission statement that have revitalized staff emotions and thus actions. No, these have been minor changes that every hospital can examine and possibly save lives across the country, maybe even yours!

Jim Anderson, a former lawyer, now chief Administrator, has learned through past experience that quality control is equally, or more, important in a hospital setting as it is in other areas of business. Twenty years previous to his becoming chief, he ran a valve manufacturing business and sold it to a very efficient company. He always remembered the experience he had of being compelled to squeeze every ounce of waste out of employees and procedures. This lesson of turning efficiency into money has resulted in a hospital that has both saved money and saved lives.

The changes have mostly been seemingly minor, but added together have changed lives. Changes in a pharmacy where it once took 23 hours to fill a prescription, now it takes only 5. This change brought about by making minor changes that reduced the length a pharmacist has to go in the process of filling a prescription, changing the room so that more people could work closer together and get more done with less waste. Or like heating Ventilator tubes (prevents water from collecting), Cleansing patients mouths using a better method, inclining patients beds when they are on ventilators, those three changes alone cut ventilator infections from 63 to 7 last year.

Mr. Anderson called in specialists to help organize the doctors. He called in Uma Kotagal, a pediatrician, to work as head of quality control. Because of her work with doctors and starting Cystic Fibrosis programs, the number of children with this respiratory disease who got flu shots went up from 36% to 86%. She also worked to eliminate delays in patient check out procedure. He also asked the help of Eugene Litvak, an operations management expert, who worked with the doctors to totally revamp the scheduling of surgeries. Setting aside operating suites for urgent cases and one for cases that needed to be completed before the end of the week. In addition one doctor a week was scheduled just for the urgent cases. This total reorganization of the surgery schedule opened up hospital beds without adding one single additional bed being added.

These are just some of the ways this children's hospital was able to reorganize and reschedule to put patients lives first and eliminate unnecessary waste. Minor changes, that is all it takes. Change a schedule here, focus on prevention there, and before you know it BAM! lives are being changed! Isn't life great?

Refrences:
Herper, Matthew. "Special Surgery: One hospital faces up to the rampant disorganization that's killing us." Forbes April 23, 2007 pp: 51-55