July 22, 2013

Improving patient and team member experience through simple changes saves time and money too!  

Ticket to Ride

Tira Williams, the manager on 6300 at Bethesda North, and her staff thought something didn't quite add up. They asked themselves "why do we need to take 12 minutes to fill out a 'ticket to ride' (TTR) for a patient who is just moving down the hall?" This process was frustrating to nurses who could not see the value of writing a 12-minute ticket for a two-minute walk.

Normally, the purpose of the ticket is to make sure the transporter and the receiving departments are aware of the patient's condition so they can provide safe care/service; but in this case, the receiving department was treating the patient every day and was already very familiar with the patient. 

When Lisa Humphrey from Performance Improvement started working with Tira's team on improving efficiency in their area, this was one of the first issues they pinpointed. They discovered that the "ticket to ride" was not required by TJC if the patient stayed on the unit and the handoff was properly executed, and along with the Logistics department, decided to eliminate writing one in that case. 

The new process is set to take effect on Monday, July 29, on 6300 at Bethesda North and the nurses are very excited to add minutes back into their day for direct patient care. 

Nurses are already speaking up about how the change will improve team member satisfaction and patient care:

• "This will allow me to spend more time with getting my patient ready for therapy."
• "I will not have to be pulled away from my patient."
• "The transporters will not have to wait for us to fill out the TTR while we are in a room." 

Additionally, this one simple improvement may convert about 1.5 FTES or approximately $100,000/year from non-value added activity to value-added activity.

TriHealth 2020 is a process that brings team members across the organization together to develop ideas that will enable us to constantly improve quality and patient experience while reducing costs.  If you have any questions about TriHealth 2020 or have an idea for a project that could improve patient experience, quality of care, or reduce costs, visit the TriHealth 2020 page atLinkNet>Quality/Safety/Service>TriHealth2020 or send an email toTrihealth2020@trihealth.com.