Understanding and Demonstrating the benefits of improvement

A work in progress!

Where do you begin?

• Quality improvement for the service user

• Increase percentage of patients receiving this surgery as a day case from 22% to 50% by April 2010

• What difference does this make for patients?

GP referral

Outpt apt

No test results

Adm

Adm night pre-surg

surgery

No surgery

Cancelled theatre

Ward stay

home

LOS

TTO variation

GP(sick note)

Sick noteDischarge info

Pain meds

Lap chole pathway for 97.9% Ninewells’ patients as inpatients

Waste to be removed:•Repeat outpatient apt•Admission pre-surgery•Cancelled operations•Post-surgery stay•Variation in TTOs•Variation in sick note/discharge info

Understanding and quantifying the waste in the current system

Lap chole pathway for 50% post change for Ninewells’ patients as daycase surgery

GP referral

Outpt apt

surgery home

Apt for surgery made

Arrive on day TTOs

SicknoteDischarge letter

Waste removed:•Repeat outpatient apt•Admission pre-surgery•Cancelled operations•Post-surgery stay•Variation in TTOs•Variation in sick note/discharge info

Map the future state

Collecting information from a patient’s notes to understand the waste

• Number of GP apts• When tests were done• Number of outpatient apts (grade of Dr they

saw)• Surgery cancelled or not • Length of stay• Any complications whilst in hospital• Discharge letter or not• TTOs – what drugs, length of time• Did they have any complications/re-admissions

Understanding Cost

• Cost of GP apt

• Cost of outpatient apt

• Cost of medics time

• Cost of time in ward (overnight stay)

• Cost of drugs

• ?Admin costs

Summarising the data into cost

• Is it possible to produce an estimated range of the cost of the waste in the current process?

• Clear time frame that you are quantifying this waste for: is it over 6months?

• Things to think about: – range in waste per patient – Variation in waste = variation in cost

Understanding the cost of change

• Time for redesign– Cost of staffing time – how many people will

be involved in the redesign work?

• Parallel processes – Frequently, changing to a new model of

service delivery involves running parallel processes for a short period of time

• New technology implementation?

Summary– the start of a framework:

• Understand the waste in the current pathway

• Map out pathway• Determine how much by when – what are

you aiming to achieve? By when?• Map out future state• Identify waste that you plan to remove

from the pathway from comparing the two pathways

Summary– the start of a framework:

• Undertake an audit of a sample of patient notes to collect information about the frequency and variation of waste along the pathway

• Use this information to determine some ranges of cost in terms of:– Staff time– Financial Cost– Patient time/experience– Extrapolate your costs based on a specific time period

and level of activity, including taking into consideration the impact of the change; will it impact on all patients or a % of them?

Summary– the start of a framework:

• Quantify the cost of undertaking the improvement work• Build a project plan• From the plan, estimate the time commitment for all staff

involved• Consider any possible costs of running the old and new

pathways at the same time: will this happen? How many patients will be going through the old process, how many through the new? For how long?

• Quantify the cost of any new equipment/IT developments/staff etc

• Compare the cost of undertaking the work with the cost of the waste in the current system

What will be the impact?

• Quality improvement?• Direct cash releasing saving?• Increased productivity?• Cost avoidance?• Resource release, e.g staff time? – what

will you do with it?• Putting timelines around the savings made

through removing the waste, e.g. £x will be saved in y months, £z over £a years.