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Cardiac careflow optimization at Heart Hospital TaUH

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As part of a multi-year strategic partnership agreement with Philips, Heart Hospital TaUH engaged the Healthcare Transformation Services consulting team to help understand gaps between processes and to define a set of careflow improvement initiatives for the catheterization labs and heart surgery department that could be implemented in the current location and in the new facility. This to support the hospital’s vision and strategy of being a center of excellence in cardiac care focused on patient and staff experience, excellent operations, and sustainable growth.

The Philips consultants were very thorough in their review and assessment of our processes and experiences. From comprehensive analyses came a targeted list of improvement opportunities we feel certain will reinforce our commitment to exceptional patient care and sustain us as we move forward.”

Aki Haukilahti, CFO

Heart Hospital TaUH

Our approach

To establish a baseline, the Philips consultants began by collecting and reviewing data provided by the hospital regarding turnover time, equipment/resource utilization, start time, and distribution of exams. Philips’ unique careflow mapping methodology was employed to create an overview of the cardiac flow as well as heart surgery flow in the hospital. Additionally, the Philips team conducted interviews with 25-30 stakeholders onsite, consisting of physicians, nurses, support staff, administrators, management and patients. Perspectives about their experiences were discussed in detail, summarized and incorporated into the experience flow maps. The consultants worked closely with a Heart Hospital TaUH project group, consisting of department heads and a cardiac operation manager, on a day-to-day basis and a steering group for project oversight.

The careflow map presents a combination of detailed process flow, patient and staff experience, perceived issues, and potential improvement areas.

Details of this care flow map are made unreadable because of privacy related reasons.

The careflow maps including identified areas of improvement, were shared with several stakeholder groups and validated during an “open house” workshop. This validation process was a key element in prioritizing the list of potential improvement areas. Consensus in the cardiology and cardiac surgery workshop demonstrated the following three improvement areas as standouts.

Initiate performance improvement, aimed at:
- increasing room utilization for interventional cath labs and cardiac operating room
- reducing turnover times in cardiac operating room
- increasing first case on-time percentage
Expand the role of nursing,
to allow physicians to perform core activities only they can do.
Streamline workflow,
by creating strong integration between IT systems, eliminating dual (manual) entry of data.

Results*

For the IT integration effort, new interfaces were created to improve workflow. For example, echocardiography reports are now sent from Philips IntelliSpace CardioVascular multi-modality image and information management tool to Cinia (Kardio cardiac registry system) using Philips UTR (Unformatted Text Reports), thereby eliminating manual entry and easing clinical decision making.

And, the new hospital planning team posted all insights and twelve improvement opportunities on the wall in their planning “war room” to ensure they addressed all existing and potential issues throughout the construction process.

Download the case study to read the full project details including additional results.

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* Results from case studies are not predictive of results in other cases. Results in other cases may vary.

Heart Hospital, a private subsidiary of Tampere University Hospital, is a full-service hospital specializing in diagnosis, treatment and follow up of cardiac diseases, for both the public and private sector throughout the Pirkanmaa district. The hospital employs approximately 400 professionals, including nearly 75 physicians, and services more than 33,000 patients annually.

Download case study

Meet our team

Egil V. Nilsen

Principal Consultant, Nordics region

Egil has extensive strategic and operational healthcare consulting expertise in program development, care flow optimization and technology implementation. As a former hospital executive, he brings practical knowledge to his consulting engagements with both public and private customers. He is a published author on topics such as adverse drug effect monitoring and improving operations in the operating room, as well as a frequent speaker on topics ranging from eHealth to service design in healthcare. Egil holds an M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering.