Utilising Available Technology to Reduce Waste and Decrease Patient Experience Times

This Organisational Development Project focused on how admissions through a hospital’s Emergency Department are organized. The primary aim was to streamline the process of organising these admissions by reducing waste and utilising available technology to improve patient flow. Following the introduction of Governmental targets in Healthcare, individual healthcare institutions are seeking ways to achieve these targets. The current process in place has many steps with duplicate paper records of ward allocation for patients who require admission. The patients' final destination within the hospital was not recorded on the Emergency Departments' Patient Information Management system (Symphony). Through the process of Lean Management the process was mapped and non-value added steps were removed. Symphony was upgraded to allow the Bed Managers to electronically record the patient’s final destination. This in turn also removed further non value steps. This increased efficiency has allowed for a reduction in paper records, a reduced workload for staff and a reduction in the time patients spend in the Emergency Department. This project has improved an aspect of patient flow and will enhance the delivery of safe and effective healthcare.