title: Boost efficiency, patient satisfaction with staff-driven improvements.
abstract: A hospital-wide improvement effort has enabled Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in Hamilton, NJ, to reinstitute a guarantee that patients arriving at the ED for care will be evaluated within 15 minutes and receive a medical examination within 30 minutes. Administrators used a team approach to identify bottlenecks and implement solutions, and they divided the ED into four zones, with provider teams responsible for each zone. Since implementing the guarantee in August of 2011, the ED has reduced its left-prior-to-medical-screening-exam rate from 3% to 1.4%, in an ED department that sees 50,000 patients per year. The zoning system in the ED has improved patient throughput and fostered accountability within the care teams responsible for each zone, say administrators. Overall care provider satisfaction has risen from the 75th percentile in 2010 to the 80th percentile in 2011, according to Press Ganey surveys.
mesh_terms: D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D006801:Humans; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital; D009515:New Jersey; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D017060:Patient Satisfaction