Healthcare Process Improvement

Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, Departmental Project in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Project Description

Abstract

Cancer patients are treated using infusion chairs, which dispenses medicine while the patient sits in the chair. This is like receiving a shot over an extended period of time. Our senior design team is working with Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare (TMH)to help improve their Cancer Center’s infusion chair process. The healthcare industry is composed of interconnected processes. These processes allow patients to be cared for in fast and effective ways. To better their process, we review the scheduling of patients, layout of chairs, and all related activities to cancer treatment. Our project’s goal is to find the best way to structure the Cancer Center’s processes. In turn, this will improve infusion chair usage. We are analyzing how the Cancer Center currently operates by looking at their patient logs. These logs include appointment and treatment types, length of appointment, and time of day. These items provide valuable insight to the flow of the Cancer Center and tell us where existing issues lie. We conclude that the physician, lab, and infusion check-in desks need better signage. Also, we suggest that the chemo and drug cabinets in the infusion pods be changed to a clear glass. This will make it easier for staff to know when the medicine is available to start treatment. These things were determined during our observations of the Cancer Center. The suggested improvements are supported by our data analysis from the statistical software Minitab. The improvements act as a guide for the Cancer Center so that they may treat more patients while maintaining patient satisfaction. Overall efficiencies will increase by implementing our suggestions. Our recommendations are specific to the Cancer Center, but TMH can apply our problem-solving steps to other areas of the hospital.

DMAIC Methodology

Phases

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Phase 1: Define

Define the problem, improvement activity, opportunity for improvement, the project goals, and customer (internal and external) requirements. +
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Phase 2: Measure

Measure the process performance with data collection and examination of variations in the process. +
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Phase 3: Analyze

Analyze the process to determine root causes of variation and poor performance. +
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Phase 4: Improve

Improve process performance by addressing and eliminating the root causes. +
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Phase 5: Control

Control the improved process and future process performance. +
Meet the Team

Team 403

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Veronica Sanchez
Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Phase 3 Leader, Webmaster
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Mareshah Proby
Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Phase 2 & 5 Leader
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Emily-Grace Alfaro
Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Phase 1 & 4 Leader
Stakeholders

Lynn Brickler (TMH)

Advisors

Professor Beth Gray (COE), Melissa Davis (COE)