Using Lean Healthcare Techniques to Reduce Appointment Times

• Published in: Journal for nurse practitioners 2023-03, Vol.19 (3), p.104508, Article 104508
• Main Authors: Frank, Lindsay, Rader, Anne
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: appointment time; Averages; Cost reduction; Efficiency; Employees; Health care; Health care policy; Heart failure; Hospitals; Laboratories; Lean healthcare; Lean manufacturing; Older people; Patient appointments; Patient satisfaction; patient throughput; process improvement; Reconciliation; Review boards; Staffing; Statistical analysis
• ISSN: 1555-4155; 1878-058X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nurpra.2022.11.018

To reduce extended appointment times at a heart failure clinic, 3 Lean healthcare-based changes were planned and implemented one at a time over 4 months. Findings based on 1,267 appointments showed that appointment times decreased with proper implementation. Although staffing challenges and inadequate sample sizes prevented statistical analysis on consult appointments, follow-up appointment results were statistically significant based on 1-way analysis of variance and Tukey honest significant difference tests. Although the study period prevented the determination of a correlation between monthly clinic end times and average appointment times (patient throughput), in-room minute decreases suggest that lean healthcare techniques can be effective in this context. •Increased clinic appointment times lead to decreased patient throughput.•Lean healthcare techniques improve efficiency and clinic flow.•Lean healthcare implementation decreased appointment times by up to 10 minutes.•Lean healthcare techniques are small changes and require no money or extra steps.•Lean healthcare techniques should not reduce face-to-face patient care time.