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Session C8. Acute Rehab Services Assessment. Adrienne Elberfeld, Black Belt, Operations Improvement department, Virtua Health.
In the year 2000, Virtua Health made a strategic cultural decision as an organization to implement Six Sigma to reduce the variations throughout the organization in order to better meet the needs of their customers. Three years ago, two hospital systems merged to create Virtua. The rehabilitation departments were some of the first to integrate their services throughout the organization. The opportunity to have an integrated team of physical therapists from multiple sites, nursing and case management personnel, and leadership to serve as change agents utilizing the tools of Six Sigma, combined with the use of CAP and Work-Out, was of high focus for others in the system. The effects on the daily operation of the therapists through the practical use of these tools, communicated to other departments at Virtua that change through statistical analysis held many opportunities to address the CTQs of their customers.
The Acute Rehab Services Six Sigma project was started in the third wave of projects at Virtua. It was one of first to look at an ancillary department within an acute care setting. In addressing the "Voice of the Customer", the team looked at two main Ys to measure: the percentage of physician consults completed within a 24 hour period, and the percentage of therapist time spent in direct patient care. Sub-Ys as per the sponsors of the project were to look at the employee opinion surveys, Press Ganey results, and the percentage of non-billable nursing screen conversions to billable physician consults. The sponsors scoped the project to one site, which looked at developing a model that could be implemented across the system. Potential benefits identified by the team were to improve patient care that may directly effect length of stay, while streamlining the processes to increase productivity of the therapist. Team members...