But since the recent images of the huge queues and accompanying chaos at several major European airports, that comparison has lost some of its popularity. Understandable on the one hand, perhaps incorrectly on the other. The ingredients for the chaos that has arisen may be instructive.
Without knowing the exact background for each situation, the general causes are mentioned: the race for the lowest price that has been conducted (which has removed all stretch from the system), insufficient preparation for the increase in passenger numbers and – most importantly – a acute shortage of personnel to carry out the work. These themes are also no stranger to concern.
The consequences of queues that are too long at check-in, baggage handling or security checks at an airport are clear. Passengers arrive too late at the gate and therefore miss their flight. This in turn leads to frustration, anger, lost time and additional costs for rebooking to another flight (or returning home disappointed).
All inclusive hospital visit
What if we translate this situation into a package holiday or all-inclusive visit to the hospital?
A patient who not only has one or more scheduled appointments with a doctor, but who also has to have a blood test or an X-ray or ultrasound made in order to make a successful hospital visit.
What are the effects (or should we talk more often about costs?) of delays in the patient logistics process during the hospital visit? What is the impact if a patient has to wait so long for a blood test or radiology that the next appointment is missed? Overrun in a doctor’s agenda often affects several appointments that day. The result: frustration, disappointment and extra time for both the care provider and the patient to ‘rebook’ to another time (or day and then return home unsatisfied and disappointed).
Avoid avoidable delays
Although disruptions and dynamics are part of the care process, there is every reason to avoid avoidable delays in the hospital as well. And since prevention is the most important means of structurally reducing healthcare costs, the question is appropriate: which lifestyle can a hospital adopt and which vitamins can be administered to ensure a sunny all-inclusive patient journey with as little stress as possible?
A few practical tips and health advice in a row
1. Ensure efficient registration and integral insight in the registration process:
The more a patient can do at home, the less stress and pressure upon arrival at the hospital. The fewer patients have to register centrally in the hospital at a counter or registration kiosk, the smaller the chance of queues.
When all open agreements and orders are also visible during the registration process, targeted management can be given. For example, the prioritization in the queue can be adjusted when taking blood on the basis of the check whether follow-up appointments are forthcoming for a patient. The next free injection booth can be assigned. Although not everyone will see this as fair, the chance of disruptions later in the process is more limited if someone without follow-up appointments has to wait a little longer and the patient with a follow-up appointment has his turn earlier.
2. Match planning to available capacity:
The free walk-in and unpredictable crowds that this entails has been greatly reduced – often under pressure from the strict waiting room policy during the corona pandemic. By scheduling as many referrals as possible by appointment (by the patient online at a time that suits them), staff planning can be better geared to demand. It is important to structurally integrate separate systems that could be quickly implemented during corona into the system landscape of the hospital or laboratory.
3. Making the most of available time to increase output/production:
For combination appointments, use smart algorithms instead of sticking to a pre-established schedule where patients sequentially go through the same order. In this way you prevent stagnation at a certain point leading to a reservoir of waiting patients on the one hand and care providers waiting in vain on the other. By looking at the optimal sequence in real time, it will become apparent that capacity problems are in reality planning problems. The good news is that they are easier to fix.
4. Do more with fewer people through efficient integration:
It is an open door, but a shortage of personnel also leads to the need to make processes more structurally efficient within the healthcare sector. Optimization can be achieved within the blood collection process by efficiently linking systems. Significant time savings are thus achieved in the administration process by linking the patient logistics system to the Laboratory Information System. This automatically links the correct order and makes it ready for the employee who calls a patient to the injection booth. Fewer actions, less chance of errors and shorter waiting and treatment time for the patient, which means higher production can be achieved.
Clear win-win
A well-arranged all-inclusive patient trip therefore provides a clear win-win. Shorter waiting times and better information for the patient, and more efficient processes, higher production and improved patient satisfaction for the healthcare institution.
Perhaps a new holiday season will begin in which the airports can learn from the efficiency in healthcare. I am curious who dares to invite Schiphol to come and learn about the logistics processes within the hospital this summer…
Wish you a good journey!