Enhancing Pre-Operative Flow: A Kaizen Approach to Care Redesign at Nemours Children’s Hospital

In March 2024, the OR team at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando (NCH-FL) surfaced problems achieving timely operating room (OR) turnovers and requested an assessment to determine factors hindering perioperative flow. An assessment team observed the area over two days, discovering that 65% of pre-op workflow consisted of non-value-added activities. A multidisciplinary team came together in May for a five-day Kaizen rapid improvement event, during which they developed countermeasures to effectively reduce time waste, streamline workflows, and optimize room utilization. This presentation will detail how the event lead to impactful and successful care redesign and flow improvements at NCH-FL.

Optimize Pre-Operative Processes: Attendees will gain the ability to redesign pre-operative processes to reduce cycle times and increase room utilization, ultimately enhancing the overall patient experience.

Enhance Collaborative Problem-Solving: Attendees will develop skills to facilitate and participate in collaborative problem-solving sessions, engaging multidisciplinary teams to achieve sustainable improvements.

Implement Kaizen Principles: Attendees will be able to apply Kaizen methodologies to identify and eliminate non-value-added activities in healthcare workflows, leading to improved efficiency and patient care.

Author

Shubham holds a Master’s degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Northern Illinois University and is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt with a profound passion for operations, operational excellence, and process improvement. With 7 years of experience in healthcare and manufacturing, he excels in driving process improvements and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. Currently serving as a Continuous Improvement Specialist at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando, Florida, he is dedicated to making data-driven decisions, embracing change with a positive mindset, and fostering teamwork across diverse departments. He has successfully led numerous projects that have significantly improved patient outcomes and operational efficiency. He is committed to leveraging data and collaboration to enhance healthcare systems, ensuring that every initiative is aligned with the goal of delivering exceptional patient care.