Questionnaire Shaves Wait Times for Gastrointestinal Patients
- Creating a questionnaire and training staff on the new process
- Partnering with the business office supervisor and asking the receptionists to hand the form to all GI procedure patients at check-in
- Decreasing/minimizing the RN time to review the entire document in detail and focus on patients' specific questions
- Giving patients a choice between RN discharge or MD discharge
What can your team do to improve efficiencies in your department? What else could your team do to help shorten patients' wait times?
With a goal to reduce patient wait times after gastrointestinal procedure to discharge from 23 minutes to 13 minutes, this unit-based team created a questionnaire and trained staff on the new process. Members asked the receptionists to hand the form to GI procedure patients at check-in. They decreased the RN time to review the entire document in detail and focus on patients' specific questions. Patients were also given a choice between RN discharge or MD discharge. Wait time fell to five minutes.
By strategically designing and using a patient questionnaire, this team cut down delays for gastrointestinal patients, who surely must have appreciated being able to go home quicker after procedures.
A simple questionnaire helped this team cut patient wait times.
minute drop in wait time