Reducing wait times to zero: PUSH days at Lions Gate Hospital
It was charge nurse Sherry Barbosa's own experience with chronic shoulder pain that inspired an innovative way to reduce wait times for other patients.
Lions Gate Hospital was dealing with a backlog of requests for pain management injections that had been long even before the COVID-19 pandemic began. While observing the team and physicians who provide treatment, she realized that by identifying specific patients with simple needs at the same time, the process could be greatly streamlined.
Sherry developed a system for injection preparation and patient flow and proposed it to the staff and physicians in Medical Imaging. The team decided to designate one day a week as a pilot, focusing on patients who had unilateral pain management issues in the upper and lower extremities. Sherry decided to call it a 'PUSH' day because they were pushing to get more patients treated safely and efficiently.
Normally, the team would see 11 to 16 patients per day; during the first PUSH day on September 16, 2021, they treated 38 patients.
By the time the PUSH days had been running for three months, the team was treating up to 72 patients each PUSH day.
By using the morning huddle each morning, specific assignments for each person, and a clear plan, the team was able to see more than triple the number of regular patients.
The goal with PUSH days was to reduce the waitlist from over a year to two months, and the team is proud to share that they have been able to eliminate the waitlist by treating around 20 patients during each PUSH day.