T10 - Reducing Laboratory Waste… and Saving Patients’ Blood!
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
10:45 AM – 11:45 AM
Location: Courtroom KL
Presentation Description: In outpatient draw sites, inpatient hospital stays, and Emergency Room visits, nurses and phlebotomists frequently collect “extra” tubes of blood from patients in addition to those drawn for a specific lab test that has been ordered by a physician. The perception is that these tubes will later be used for “add-on” tests that a provider decides to order, thus saving the patient from a second stick…ouch! Do these tubes really get used? If not, how much is wasted in time, supplies, money…and patient blood? The answers will shock you. Through data collection and analysis, teams identified significant amounts of waste in the laboratory as a result of this process. This session will walk participants through the actions taken in four example hospitals in order to reduce waste and see real results. Lean Six Sigma concepts will include the DMAIC framework, waste, Pareto analysis, control charts, and more. Session will be valuable and of interest to both healthcare and other industry participants.
Learning Objectives:
Become familiar with the concept of collecting "extra" tubes of blood from patients in the healthcare setting and how it creates significant amounts of waste in the laboratory - in time, supplies, money, and patient blood.
Walk through the actions taken by four real life case study example hospitals in order to reduce waste as a result of this process.
Identify the five interconnected steps of the DMAIC Framework and utilize it as a data-driven quality strategy for improving a process or metric.
Understand the terms/tools of Waste, Pareto analysis, and control charts, including examples of how they can be used within a process improvement project.
