Setting: Lister Hospital, East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust
Problem: Patients who come to radiology for outpatient procedures only need to be in the department for a few minutes yet must wait for several hours for a return journey. This impacts both patient experience and radiology staff. The current wait time for patients undergoing procedure is 118 minutes. In instances where the Patient Transport Service (PTS) waited, the waiting time was only 11 minutes. However, this data was just based on 3 out of 126 occasions from October 2022 – April 2023.
Understanding the problem: There is a wide variety of outpatient diagnostic procedures that patients undergo. Using a pareto chart, the most common procedures were identified along with their corresponding average wait times. The most common procedures were leg ultrasound (119 minutes), chest x-ray (124 minutes), neck ultrasound (92 minutes) and knee x-ray (109 minutes). The project focused on reducing the wait times for these procedures.
Project aim: The project aimed to reduce the waiting time by 50% by December 2023.
Drivers: The primary drivers identified were collaboration, process, and complexity of patients’ cases. Communication and agreement of an efficient process with PTS was an issue. The project lead also acknowledged that the booking process also contributed to the wait times. Lastly, there was something about the complexity of patient cases. Some patients required simple examinations, and some require more complex examinations. The project focused on the reducing the wait times for simple examinations.
Measurement: Transport waiting times in radiology in minutes.
Change ideas: The project lead intended to set up a meeting with the Patient Transport service to work together and agree on a plan on how to reduce transport wait times. The idea is for the ambulance crew to wait for the patients. The team is brainstorming on efficient ways to book transport. The team also is testing on pre-booked transport.
Outcome: The wait time remains the same at this moment. The project lead realised the importance of collaboration and early engagement with stakeholders. On reflection, the project lead realised the importance of considering scope and sphere of influence when choosing a project.
Next steps: Gather more change ideas from the radiology team and start testing them.
Andrew-Jackson---Reducing-the-impact-of-transport-wait-times-in-radiology-64f9048e13744.pdf