Emergency Department Future State Kaizen Event
The Emergency Department Future State Kaizen Event took place June 14th to 18th. The team included Dave Dawson, Seth Reynolds, Mary Jastrab, Michelle Anderson, Gia Benoit, Joyce Benson, Sheri Ball, Rob Jastrab, Darryl Flores, and Charlie Crevling. The team objectives were to examine the current ED state to identify waste, brainstorm future state options, prioritize future state options using design criteria, and to identify facility modifications needed to create the ideal future state. During the week, the team evaluated patient & staff satisfaction data, patient complaint information, and occurrence report information. All in an effort to ensure that the future state will adhere to best practice standards and meet the needs of our staff, patients, and visitors. Additionally the team conducted observations to ensure full understanding of the current state which assisted  in brainstorming the future state ideas. The team sought the insight of many other disciplines that work in and closely with the Emergency Department, including physicians.  The team has developed an action plan to reach their ideal state. Many of these items can be implemented prior to the construction of a new Emergency Department. These actions will help to make the work more efficient and easy to perform for the staff.  One of these action items is the upcoming 5S Event that is scheduled in late August. We look forward to presenting more information about the 5S event once it is completed. 

OB Team 5S Event
Another Lean event to be proud of ur OB team completed a 5S event recently. The improvements allowed for more efficiency in the day to day flow of work. The team included Alana Hurst (Team Leader & OB RN), Shama Sambergerova (Unit Clerk), Lilia Brown (OB RN), Emily Tebben (OB RN), Kiffany Hoffman (OB RN), Susan Johnson (Anesthesia Tech), & Jim Miller (Materials Management).

This group went in to understand how the 5S approach could help them increase efficiency in accessing supplies and to better ensure appropriate compliance with infection control standards in storage of supplies within the Women’s and Children’s area. Not only did they accomplish this but they reduced the number of steps staff are required to take by streamlining the placement of supplies. These efforts should work towards improving employee and physician satisfaction,
saving time and increasing patient satisfaction. 5S Process is defined as:

Sort: Get rid of unneeded items
Straighten: Organize and label the location for items that are needed in the area
Shine: Clean the workspace
Standardize: Equipment clean & prepped for use
Sustain: Develop cleaning methods & cleanliness standards to maintain the first 3 S’s

Review the workplace regularly. Make it a habit

Other Lessons Learned:
Never order oral swabs again
It is so much nicer for our staff & patients
Ensure supplies and equipment are within easy access to staff
Doubled efficiency, while decreasing walking by 50%
OB staff is not as bad as everyone says
It is a lot easier to tackle a problem then avoid it
Our patients are safer from potential infections (& Heather is happy)
Nurses are hoarders
And, There is a place for everything –everything in its place every time
As you can tell the group had fun too.
For more details please see the attached report out. Nice job to the OB 5S team!

VVMC completes it’s second Lean Event.!

The effort focused on  OR storage and was named the “OR Storage 5S Event.”  Team two included:  Sonya Sjostrom,  CN OR, Holly Austin, OR RN, Angie Jacobs, Lab Asst, Anthony Montes, PCU Equipment Tech, Daniel St Armand, PCU Director, Susan Brozovich, OR Director, Don Springer OR Supply Manager, Randy Hillman, SPD Director,  Darryl  Flores, Facilities Director,  Michelle Clark, Sr. Manager/Quality, Tom Mars, Vice President Professional Services, Renee Hawk, HPP, Maureen Sullivan, HPP

This lean event took the art of 5S to heart and accomplished a new redesign of our OR storage which better facilitates access and ease of equipment inventory management. 

The process of  the team followed involves 5S

Sort- Get rid of unneeded items
Straighten - Organize and label the location for items that are needed in the area
Shine - Clean the workspace, Equipment clean & prepped for use
Standardize - Develop cleaning methods & cleanliness standards to maintain the first 3 S’s
Sustain - Review the workplace regularly.  Make it a habit.

Hats off to team two!  Through your efforts we have improved the way we have access to equipment for patient care and also reclaimed an extra 614 ft for future storage needs.   The full report out is provided for your review.  

Initial Kaizen Event
The initial Kaizen event took place last week and the outcomes were impressive.  Our first team included Michelle Clark, Dana Kluk, Andy Almonte. Brenda Hawkins, Carrie McDowell, Christina Gonzales, Diane Botkin, Patti Erickson, Bobby Brown and Tom Mars. Maureen Sullivan of Healthcare Performance Partners provided guidance during the LEAN event. 

The scope of the team was to improve patient satisfaction, quality and time tied to the way oxygen is used during and post stay on our PCU.  During the week, the team observed every aspect of the process, analyzed data to identify areas of waste, made improvements on the spot and collectively brought new ideas forward that will continue to improve the process over the next weeks ahead.  The team worked with vendors, physicians and other key stake holders to get a broader understanding of how each is impacted by the current and future state.  One of the things the team learned is that even a simple process can be quite complex.  The Kaizen event helped the team approach process improvements in a much more complete way.   In addition, the team applied group communication methods to ensure opinions were integrated into the outcomes successfully.

For the full presentation please see the Report Out (in ppt format).    We also encourage you to learn more about LEAN by accessing http://leanhealthcareperformance.com/