Improving The Operating Room Efficiency

Providing the best care to each patient starts with providing the proper amount of staff members to each unit. Looking at the needs of different units not only allows administration to see areas for improvement, but also areas that are being handled correctly. Utilizing the indicators provided by The Joint Commission, 4 East, a pediatric medical/surgical floor, has a high rate of falls and nosocomial pressure ulcers that appears to be related to the increase overtime nurses have been working for that floor (Nightingale, 2010). Research has shown increases in adverse events have been related to nurses working over 40 hours a week (Bae, 2012).

Appropriate nurse staffing is a complex topic that has arisen as a nationwide healthcare issue within the profession of Registered Nurses (RN). To truly understand the concept of staffing one must understand that staffing and scheduling are often at times used interchangeably although Mensik (2014) noted a distinct difference between the two (p. 2). The American Nurse Association [ANA] (2012) has defined appropriate nurse staffing “as a match of registered nurse expertise with the needs of the recipient of nursing care services in the context of the practice setting and situation” (p. 6). Scheduling, in contrast, involves taking into account factors such as a unit’s historical census numbers along with anticipated surgical volumes

The implications and effects on patients waiting long hours to be seen in the ED are immense. In a recent study done over five years in Ontario hospitals showed the risk of adverse events and even deaths increased with the length of stay in the ED (Science Daily, 2011). When EDs become overcrowded the quality of care changes and declines; which is extremely dangerous. Authors of the study calculated that if ED length of stay was cut by only an hour that 150 fewer Ontarians would die each year (Science Daily, 2011). Wait times can also negatively affect patients financially, untreated medical conditions can lead to reduced productivity and inability to work leading to increased financial strains (Fraser Institute, 2014). As well as delayed access to care can result in more complex interventions needed. Therefore an initiative is needed to provide patients with timely, efficient care when accessing

In order to improve the shipping and handling process for the custom surgical packs, I feel that the first step should be evaluating the exact amount of inventory needed for one day operations. Once the exact amount has been accounted for, APH’s management department can use this data to help reduce the quantity of packs in the buffer from one day supply to smaller a number of packs, thus decreasing the expense. This action helps circle back to the main functionary goal of the JIT method, which is the elimination of waste within the company/organization

Throughout this course I have learned about the various challenges that impede productivity and efficiency at today’s hospitals. These issues facing the modern healthcare organization come in varying forms from technological, staffing, and financial to name a few. There are no limits to what hospitals can face in these modern technologically savvy times. Below are the major issues that today’s hospitals are facing, though there are many facets to these topics it will be described as best as possible to meet overall challenges:

Ambulatory Surgical Center provides same-day surgical care that includes diagnostic and preventive procedures. Ambulatory Surgical Center treats only patients who have already seen a health care provider and selected surgery as the appropriate treatment for their condition. Ambulatory Surgical Center must be certified and approved to enter into a written agreement with CMS. Ambulatory Surgical Center has a unique set of regulation and standards under the Medicare and Medicaid program or other third party payers. The outpatient payment provides a set payment for each surgical procedure. They must be licensed and inspected by the State and Federal government to see if they meet standards Certified facility standers.

During this past year I feel that I am more aware of cost saving techniques and this has become one of my strengths. While at MIA5 I was tasked with ordering all Safety/Amcare supplies. During the previous year I had the approach of look into the cabinets and it if looked low then order it. I then came up with an inventory supply list that I checked on a monthly basis, I used this to prevent myself from ordering supplies that weren't needed. This also allowed me to account for where we were spending most of the budget. I also compared Moore Medical brand medications against the other brands listed on the website. I found the lowest cost and made note of the reorder code in order to continuously order the lowest cost medication, saving the site and company

Despite the challenges, this facilitating experice has instilled me a degree of appreciation of many staff who work hard behind the scene to ahcieve the common goal of providing the best care possible to patients within the scarce resources. It was possible to see how good working relationship with other disciplines can improve overall efficiency.

According to the AHRQ: National Healthcare Quality Report (2009), the goal of quality of health is to help people stay healthy, learn to live with a disability or chronic disease, recuperate from an illness, and deal with dying and death. However, instead of delivering health care services that are safe, patient centered, equitable, and timely. Many patients do not receive needed care. When care is received many times it is unsafe or too late

Different facilities have their own benefits for caring for patients, along with their staff members as well. Healthcare reform are already urging hospitals and critical care centers to create ways to increase efficiency throughout their facility, along with, the hot topic of streamlining costs. This also has its own pros and cons which could be for the better or for the worse for all that are

As the number of the cases increase, the just-in-time supply chains or the standard operating procedures would be really difficult to meet the growing demand. Hence the healthcare systems have been challenged to determine the medical supplies that need to be procured. One of the most challenging jobs is to develop a prioritized list detailing all the supplies and essential quantities that need to be stockpiled.

My inventory control procedures provided both increased revenues and cost savings. Quite simply, I ordered adequate levels of products which were in high demand, I was able to better meet customers’ needs, and my revenues increased. The cost savings I experienced as a result of my inventory control procedures were a bit more complex. First, in establishing a routine schedule for ordering, I was able to reap the benefits of lower shipping costs. Because I had a routine schedule, I could

“The Process Improvement in Stanford Hospital’s Operating Room” case has many issues when it comes to regards to its existing instrument provisioning process taking place within the Operating Room (OR) of Stanford’s Hospital. This process entails getting instruments ready for a surgery in the OR and the cleansing of these instruments afterwards; however, there are many problems that arise in this process.

Produce more products so there is less restocking issues but not more than the market calls for (supply and demand),

The manufacturing cost can be lower as the rearrangement of the production line to meet urgent order can be minimize or even eliminated.