University College London Hospital's training programme helped staff identify weaknesses in their clinic’s processes.A leading London teaching hospital is giving staff the power to decide how outpatient clinics are run, which is transforming services, reducing waiting times and improving the patient experience.
University College London hospital sees more than 800,000 people in outpatient clinics every year.
But it realised it had to improve the system after a questionnaire revealed 47% of outpatients ranked the service they received as "not at all" or "fairly" well organised, and 59% complained that they had to wait at least 30 minutes before they were seen in a clinic.
The trust's quality, efficiency and productivity team designed a 24-week staff training programme which, with the support of service improvement coaches, aimed to help clinic staff identify where there were weaknesses in their clinic's processes and procedures and to come up with solutions to solve the problems.
So far the team has worked with 31 different multi-disciplinary staff teams and 300 outpatient clinics.
The results are impressive. The endocrinology clinic has halved waiting times to 45 minutes by staggering patient arrival times and realigning clinic templates. The musculoskeletal clinic has cut its waiting list from 15 weeks to seven by pooling its booking queues system.
The introduction of a 24-hour telephone advice line in maternity has reduced clinic waiting times, taken the pressure off labour wards and improved the experience of patients.
Louise Molloy, productive programme manager, says: "In essence, this programme gives teams the permission to focus on and improve their services.
"It allows them to take all those things that they see are not working and bring them together with the right staff, and working with a professional coach, to develop a programme of work to solve those problems."
At least 80% of outpatient clinics are scheduled to go through the process by 2015.
This article is published by Guardian Professional. Join the Healthcare Professionals Network to receive regular emails and exclusive offers
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