“Jaded Julie, what’s the first thing we should consider in planning new additions to the hospital campus?”
“”I’m delighted that you asked, Curmudge. The first thing we should design is a sumptuous nurses’ lounge.”
“Get serious! You know that’s not correct. But being the forgiving guy that I am, I’ll give you a second chance at the question.”
“You know me, Curmudge. When given the opportunity, I swing for the fences. I guess the traditional way to design new additions to the hospital is to hire an experienced architect, tell him what you want, and hope for the best. If the new facility has deficiencies, you spend the rest of your career doing kaizen events to correct them.”
“If you did that these days, the ‘rest of your career’ might be very short. Now we ‘do it right the first time’ whether it’s building a hospital or running a test in the lab. So how do we learn what we want so we can tell the architect?”
“I’ve got it, Curmudge; I finally have the answer. The first step is to listen to the voice of the customer—in this case, the patient.”
“Good job, Julie, and it only took you half a page. Teams representing each of the departments to be involved in new construction were assembled for the purpose of assessing the experiences of patients coming into our present facilities. Patient interviews helped us understand our present shortcomings and what the patients would like to experience in the future. It’s quite amazing that the patients came up with 860 ideas.”
“Do you mean that we have been doing 860 things wrong?”
“Not necessarily, but there were 860 items to consider. Each team gathered the ideas collected by its members into groups based on the ideas’ similarity. Numbers of groups ranged from 5 for the Inpatient Surgery team to 18 for Outpatient Testing. Some themes, such as privacy, patient safety, and communications, appeared repeatedly in the groups from several teams. The big ideas on how to make things better were then put on a high-level process map of the patient experience. Parts of the map include Understanding (why the patient decides to come to Affinity), Entry (arrival, wayfinding, and registration), Assessment (identifying patient status and needs), Treatment, and Transition (follow-up and ongoing care).”
“Voice of the customer. Process Map. Hey, Curmudge, this is sounding more and more like Lean.”
“That’s because it is Lean, Julie. If we use Lean in building design, we’ll have fewer irritants—like nurse workarounds—that require Lean events later on. And in addition, what was learned in the Patient Experience study sounds more and more like the attributes of our brand promise, Personalized Care.”
“It certainly seems as if we are on the right track. I presume our discussion of Lean in building design will be continued next time. By the way, Curmudge, in your long and misspent life you must have had a few experiences as a patient.”
“Those are things I want to forget. Almost exactly 51 years ago I was a patient for two days. As a result, my advice to a patient then was, ‘Leave your dignity at home.’ Thank God things are much better now, and with Personalized Care they’re improving every day.”
“Amen, Curmudge, amen.”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
Check out the latest posting in Curmudge and Jaded Julie’s personal blog, Curmudgeon’s Wastebasket.
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1 comment:
I agree with you that listening to the voice of our customer should be our first priority.
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