St Joseph’s Continuing Care Center

Admission process at SJCCC

Problem Statement

Josiane and Galye identified a delay between the identification of bed vacancy and the bed fulfilment notice at SJCCC.They worked to outline a problem statement in order to improve the process. The problem was defined as:

Delays between the identification of a bed vacancy and the bed fulfillment notice; resulting in minimal preparation time for all disciplines as well as later admissions or no admissions

Background/Current Conditions:

In order to better understand this delay, current conditions surrounding the problem were investigated using Lean productivity tools. A root cause analysis and process map were executed with their staff and it was found that when the information was received late, there was a decrease in staff satisfaction due to their inability to prepare prior to the patient’s arrival. 

Staff indicated that when this occurs there was less time for cleaning staff to sterilize the room prior to the admission coming in. There is also less time to correct medication errors once they have been received and obtain all the proper medications on time. Furthermore, there is wasted time for the Pharmacy as they are calling the facility to inquire if the medication list has been received.

 

Goal

Upon review of the background conditions the following goals were developed in order to reduce waste in the process and reduce the time it takes to fill an empty bed by 50%;

(1) Decrease the average time to prepare the admission package, create patient profile in PCC and add to Grasp,

(2) have new admissions arrive at the desired time to fill the bed, 

(3) Improve communication between departments/disciplines 

(4) improve and increase the amount of time to problem solve 

(5) Increase amount of time to receive patient medications and 

(6) increase the amount of time available to cleaning staff to sterilize/prepare room for new patient

Result

Staff used tools to reduce waste and decrease time from application receipt to admission of the patient in the facility by 50%. Admission documents were made available electronically to facilitate multi user use at the same time. Visual management tools were put into practice to ensure gains were maintained.

Executive Summary

Gayle, Occupational Therapist / Patient Flow Coordinator, and Josiane, RPN/RAI coordinator, identified an area of improvement in one of the processes at St Joseph’s Continuity Care Center. Staff used process improvement tools such as a Root Cause Analysis and Process Map in order to identify areas of waste. Once areas of waste were identified, a set of goals were outlined which lead to the elimination of waste in the process and a reduction in the time taken to carry out the process.