Mass General Hospital

What are the primary challenges in improving operating processes in a health care environment? †¢Maintaining Quality Care. †¢Coordination of department segments †¢Reducing cost without compromising patient care †¢Support from the staff / stakeholders †¢To remove / determine non-value added activity †¢Conformance and control 2. What is a care path? Care path is used to manage the quality in healthcare with regards to standardization of care process by minimizing delays and with resource utilization while maximizing the quality of care. . What are its specific features? †¢Control Cost †¢Diagnostics testing†¢Standardization †¢Create efficiencies †¢Improves communication †¢Improves coordination †¢Allows for flexibility †¢Provides Reliability †¢Faster diagnostics a. What does it not do? ?Apply to all ?Make any guarantees 4. What are the most common causes of extended stay for CABG patients? †¢Not having a Care path †¢Amount of therapy required †¢Level of complications †¢Health care payment method 5. What are some of the important steps the team took to develop the care ath to make it acceptable to everyone involved? †¢Creating of cross functional teams †¢Working with and listening to everyone †¢Making all feel like part of the process †¢Ensuring there are quality controls / checks and balances 6. What are the hazards of standardizing the process too rigorously? †¢Not getting buying from staff †¢Misdiagnosis †¢Increasing cost 7. What are the dangers of allowing too much freedom to customize the process? †¢Increasing cost †¢Failure to collaborate †¢Patient takes too long to be diagnosed or misdiagnosed 8.Does every care path patient have to go through all the steps in the care path? What happens to patients who do not follow the path fully? †¢No, patients can be removed from any step within the care path once it is deter mined that the care path is not going to work for the patient. Obviously there is going to be a percentage of patients that are going to deviate from the standard. For these patients they must follow a path specific to receiving the proper diagnosis and treatment. This may require addition diagnostic testing, seeing specialist, longer stay, additional therapy etc.