A Faster Lab in Five Days

In a large hospital, the response time of returning lab results to the wards was reduced by a factor of 10 simply by reducing the size of the transfer batch. It turned out that the transfer batch was determined by the size of the transfer trays.

- Boaz Ronen

One 2,400-square-foot hospital lab wanted to reduce turnaround times, which would reduce ED turnaround times and reduce LOS in the nursing units. Using pedometers, the hospital tracked lab worker travel time for a week. The hospital conducted what’s known as a 5S analysis (i.e., sort, straighten, shine, standardize, and sustain) to clean the area of 10 years’ worth of clutter (Figure 1.1) in four hours, then mapped the value stream (Figure 1.2) in two hours, and redesigned the workflow (Figure 1.3) in two hours.

Figure 1.1: 5S lab trash

Figure 1.2: Lab original spaghetti diagram

Figure 1.3: Lab redesign

Using Post-it Notes and a flipchart, the lab team was able to redesign the lab to reduce

• Staff movement by 54 percent (goal 30 percent)
• Floor space by 17 percent (goal 10 percent)
• Phlebotomist travel by 55 percent (21,096 feet to about 4 miles, ~1.5 Full Time Equivalent [FTE])
• Tech travel by 40 percent (2,304 feet, 0.15 FTE over three shifts)
• Sample travel by 55 percent (23,400 feet and 7 hours of delay per 24 hours)

Some changes could be implemented immediately; others required coordination to move machinery and recalibrate. The lab got a lot faster with less than two days of effort.

If you go to www.qimacros.com/webinars/webinar-dates.html, you can sign up for a free Lean Six Sigma for Healthcare Webinar to learn more about this Lean for hospital labs projects.

Denver Health rearranged workstations and equipment in the lab to reduce turnaround times for test results by 25 percent and saved $88,000. Overall, since starting its Lean journey in 2005, Denver Health has saved $54 million in increased revenue and cost savings.