During the planning and construction phase, led by Linda Andersson, Partner of Consulting Services at Ernst & Young in Sweden, we helped the hospital consider efficient, effective care pathways and reinvent its operations infrastructure to encourage continuous improvement from the ground up.
Take medical imaging as an example. Before purchasing a single imaging machine, workshops were held with radiologists, radiology nurses, medical technicians, medical physicists, other medical specialists, and controllers to identify optimal patient care pathways. The groups were asked to map out the flow of care; think through the handoff points; and brainstorm logistic, process and operational ideas to achieve better outcomes for patients.
This resulted in concrete ideas for process improvement such as placing machines on specific patient floors colocated with areas of highest and most urgent patient need, or better locating heavy machines such as magnetic resonance imagers. Suppliers were then challenged to make this a reality, identifying the machines, locations and processes needed to make these pathways more efficient and support the desired patient results.