1
Background
The XYZ Hospital has been committed to excellence in its provision of quality health services
since 2005. It has an international reputation for offering outstanding private healthcare, with
high-level clinical skills and nursing care, across its specialist wards.
In early 2013, to improve its services, the hospital implemented a new patient appointment-
scheduling system. However, that new system failed to work as expected, for it left 52% of
patients arriving at the XYZ Check-In Desk waiting for longer than 40 minutes. That drew many
complaints from the patients, and the hospital’s market share dropped significantly.
Analysis
Waiting time for patients at XYZ Hospital is over 40 minutes longer than the national average.
That is not acceptable to the XYZ Hospital CEO. Table 1.1 shows the last 6 years of average
patient waiting time:
Table 1.1
Period (year) 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Waiting time (Average) 10 15 20 25 30 40
The CEO appointed a consulting company to assess the main causes for the long delays in
waiting time. During June 2016, the consulting company randomly chose 100 patients and
recorded the waiting time of each. This data, shown in Table 1.2, gave it a basic understanding of
the distribution of waiting time:
Table 1.2
Waiting period in minutes Frequency
More than 0 and less than or equal 5 min 1
More than 5 and less than or equal 10 min 3
More than 10 and less than or equal 15 min 5
More than 15 and less than or equal 20 min 6
More than 20 and less than or equal 25 min 10
More than 25 and less than or equal 30 min 15
More than 30 and less than or equal 35 min 20
More than 35 and less than or equal 40 min 30
More than 40 and less than or equal 45 min 5
More than 45 and less than or equal 50 min 5
As part of its assignment, the consulting company sought to identify the causes of the common
problem of long waiting times for patient appointments. It approached its identification task along
the three lines:
2
1. The consulting company began its investigation by agreeing upon the problem statement
with the hospital’s team, which included all the key admittance-staff personnel.
2. The cause-and -effect analysis tool was chosen to analyse all the causes of the identified
waiting-time delays.
3. A list was compiled of the possible causes of the problem, along five WHYs. They found
that the major categories (the main contributors) can be declared as Method, Environment,
People, and Machines, and that the causes and their frequency occur as follows:
Causes Frequency
A Small-space waiting room. 20
B Poor maintenance. 10
C Process takes too long. 80
D Patients do not keep appointment time. 15
E Files missing and poor scheduling. 50
F Patients defer at last minute. 10
The XYZ Hospital’s current objective
The main objective of the XYZ Hospital is to set waiting time to less than 10 minutes, and t ...
1 Background The XYZ Hospital has been committed to.docx
1. 1
Background
The XYZ Hospital has been committed to excellence in its
provision of quality health services
since 2005. It has an international reputation for offering
outstanding private healthcare, with
high-level clinical skills and nursing care, across its specialist
wards.
In early 2013, to improve its services, the hospital implemented
a new patient appointment-
scheduling system. However, that new system failed to work as
expected, for it left 52% of
patients arriving at the XYZ Check-In Desk waiting for longer
than 40 minutes. That drew many
complaints from the patients, and the hospital’s market share
dropped significantly.
Analysis
Waiting time for patients at XYZ Hospital is over 40 minutes
longer than the national average.
That is not acceptable to the XYZ Hospital CEO. Table 1.1
2. shows the last 6 years of average
patient waiting time:
Table 1.1
Period (year) 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Waiting time (Average) 10 15 20 25 30 40
The CEO appointed a consulting company to assess the main
causes for the long delays in
waiting time. During June 2016, the consulting company
randomly chose 100 patients and
recorded the waiting time of each. This data, shown in Table
1.2, gave it a basic understanding of
the distribution of waiting time:
Table 1.2
Waiting period in minutes Frequency
More than 0 and less than or equal 5 min 1
More than 5 and less than or equal 10 min 3
More than 10 and less than or equal 15 min 5
More than 15 and less than or equal 20 min 6
More than 20 and less than or equal 25 min 10
3. More than 25 and less than or equal 30 min 15
More than 30 and less than or equal 35 min 20
More than 35 and less than or equal 40 min 30
More than 40 and less than or equal 45 min 5
More than 45 and less than or equal 50 min 5
As part of its assignment, the consulting company sought to
identify the causes of the common
problem of long waiting times for patient appointments. It
approached its identification task along
the three lines:
2
1. The consulting company began its investigation by agreeing
upon the problem statement
with the hospital’s team, which included all the key admittance-
staff personnel.
2. The cause-and -effect analysis tool was chosen to analyse all
the causes of the identified
waiting-time delays.
3. A list was compiled of the possible causes of the problem,
4. along five WHYs. They found
that the major categories (the main contributors) can be
declared as Method, Environment,
People, and Machines, and that the causes and their frequency
occur as follows:
Causes Frequency
A Small-space waiting room. 20
B Poor maintenance. 10
C Process takes too long. 80
D Patients do not keep appointment time. 15
E Files missing and poor scheduling. 50
F Patients defer at last minute. 10
The XYZ Hospital’s current objective
The main objective of the XYZ Hospital is to set waiting time
to less than 10 minutes, and to
improve patient flows. This should increase patient satisfaction,
and reduce waste in the system
in terms of motion and waiting time. That can be achieved by:
1. improving the hospital layout to support patient flow;
5. 2. adding more visual signs to communicate with patients;
3. standardising the process;
4. organising the work place, and labelling each items so it can
be easily identified when
needed.
3
Assignment tasks
Based on your results, fill out the A3 report, and suggest some
lean system tools and methods to
help the hospital achieve its targets.
4
5
