Utilization of Portable Radios to Improve Ophthalmology Clinic Efficiency in an Academic Setting

Alexander S. Davis, Ahmed M. Elkeeb, Gianmarco Vizzeri, Bernard F. Godley

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Improvement in clinic efficiency in the ambulatory setting is often looked at as an area for development of lean management strategies to deliver a higher quality of healthcare while reducing errors, costs, and delays. To examine the benefits of improving team communication and its impact on clinic flow and efficiency, we describe a time-motion study performed in an academic outpatient Ophthalmology clinic and its objective and subjective results. Compared to clinic encounters without the use of the portable radios, objective data demonstrated an overall significant decreases in mean workup time (15.18 vs. 13.10), room wait (13.10 vs. 10.47), and decreased the total time needed with an MD per encounter (9.45 vs. 6.63). Subjectively, significant improvements were seen in careprovider scores for patient flow (60.78 vs. 84.29), getting assistance (61.89 vs. 88.57), moving patient charts (54.44 vs. 85.71), teamwork (69.56 vs. 91.0), communications (62.33 vs. 90.43), providing quality patient care (76.22 vs. 89.57), and receiving input on the ability to see walk-in patients (80.11 vs. 90.43). For academic purposes, an improvement in engagement in patient care and learning opportunities was noted by the clinic resident-in-training during the pilot study. Portable radios in our pilot study were preferred over the previous method of communication and demonstrates significant improvements in certain areas of clinical efficiency, subjective perception of teamwork and communications, and academic learning.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)64
Number of pages1
JournalJournal of Medical Systems
Volume40
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 1 2016

Keywords

  • Clinic
  • Efficiency
  • Lean management
  • Portable radio

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Medicine (miscellaneous)
  • Information Systems
  • Health Informatics
  • Health Information Management

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