The Veterans Health Administration has had its fair share of problems surrounding patient wait times, scheduling and general lack of healthcare access for the 9 million veterans depending on it for care. However, a study in JAMA Surgery uncovered a possible solution to long wait times for elective surgery: implementing lean processes.
Researchers examined several databases over three fiscal years to determine the effect of lean process implementation on patient wait time and clinical volume for general surgical procedures at the VA hospital in Indianapolis.
Pilot projects as part of the lean process implementation began in the middle of fiscal year 2013, after multidisciplinary teams identified problems and came up with strategies to improve communication to reduce canceled surgeries, no-shows and diagnostic rework.
Following the improvement projects, mean patient wait time for general elective surgery decreased from 33.4 days in fiscal year 2012 to 26 days in fiscal year 2013. By fiscal year 2014, wait times were down to 12 days.
Additionally, patient volume increased from 931 patients in fiscal year 2012 to 1,072 in fiscal year 2014.
"Improvement in the overall surgical patient experience can stem from multidisciplinary collaboration among systems redesign personnel, clinicians and surgical staff to reduce systemic inefficiencies," the study concludes. "Monitoring and follow-up of system efficiency measures and the employment of lean practices and process improvements can have positive short- and long-term effects on wait times, clinical throughput and patient care and satisfaction."