Purpose

Cost reduction is a current topic within healthcare. This article aims to show how Lean Six Sigma can be applied to make the orthopedic outpatient clinic within a hospital more cost-effective. The approach can, of course, also be applied to other departments.

Design/methodology/approach

We did a pareto analysis to select the project with the greatest potential. The most expensive and time-consuming activity is repeat consultations; these number around 7,500 per year and are all performed by the orthopedic surgeon. This limits the number of appointments available for new patients. Moreover, the hospital gets a fixed amount of money for each new patient. Therefore, reducing the number of repeat consultations is beneficial to both the patient and the hospital.

Findings

Based on data analysis, we found that the number of repeat consultations performed by orthopedic surgeons can be reduced by 19.5%. An additional 10.8% can be performed by phone, which will probably save the surgeons considerable time. The freed-up time can be used for new patients. Another result is that hospital visits by patients for repeat consults can be reduced by 20.3%. We believe that these efficiency improvements are also possible for other departments/processes. Finally, in the given case, the freed-up time for new patients could generate 465K euros.

Originality/value

This article shows that 20% of the care provided by the physicians (i.e. repeat consults) is omissible. While most projects focus on doing the same number of activities in a more efficient way, this paper shows that it is also possible to reduce the amount of medical care provided. We believe that it would be beneficial to take such a perspective when looking at other processes and departments within healthcare.

中文翻译：

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提高医疗保健效率：骨科门诊的展示

目的

降低成本是医疗保健领域的当前主题。本文旨在展示如何应用精益六西格码来提高医院内的骨科门诊诊所的成本效益。当然，这种方法也可以应用于其他部门。

设计/方法/方法

我们进行了帕累托分析以选择最具潜力的项目。最昂贵和最耗时的活动是重复咨询；这些数字每年约 7,500 次，全部由整形外科医生执行。这限制了可用于新患者的预约数量。此外，医院为每位新患者获得固定金额的资金。因此，减少重复咨询的次数对患者和医院都有好处。

发现

根据数据分析，我们发现骨科医生的重复会诊次数可以减少19.5%。额外的 10.8% 可以通过电话进行，这可能会为外科医生节省大量时间。腾出的时间可用于新患者。另一个结果是，重复咨询的患者就诊次数可减少 20.3%。我们相信其他部门/流程也可以提高这些效率。最后，在给定的情况下，为新患者腾出的时间可以产生 46.5 万欧元。

原创性/价值

这篇文章表明，医生提供的 20% 的护理（即重​​复咨询）是可以省略的。虽然大多数项目专注于以更有效的方式开展相同数量的活动，但本文表明，减少提供的医疗服务量也是可能的。我们认为，在查看医疗保健中的其他流程和部门时，采取这样的观点是有益的。