Small schedule changes have big impact on MRI appointments, cost savings

Value compass: Best quality, best service, most affordable

Department: MRI, Kaiser Permanente Sunnyside Medical Center (Northwest)

Problem: The department was receiving more cases each day than it could handle. This created an access issue and drove up outside costs.

Metric: Number of patients scanned per day, number of outside referrals, amount of cost savings by not referring patients to outside services, staff satisfaction.

First small test: Reduced the overlap in staffing and changed the schedules of two technologists, increasing their ability to see more patients. Goal was to increase capacity to see more patients and reduce outside referrals by at least 10 per week within two weeks.

Result: The new staffing schedule, which doesn’t infringe on union contracts, came out of a brainstorming session and was supported by staff and physicians. After the first two technologists adjusted their schedules, a third technologist, seeing the difference it made, offered to adjust his schedule. By the end of one week, about 15 more patients were added to KP’s schedule and not referred to outside services. This will result in a cost savings of about $7,500 per week, or about $30,000 per month.

In addition to the work done in the UBT, a mobile scanner also was added to the department. This will enable an additional 11 patients per day to be seen—or about 55 patients per week, with around $30,000 per week saved in outside referral costs.

Next step: The UBT will continue to monitor the changes to ensure the new processes are working well for patients and staff. The team will also assess the use of the mobile scanner to see whether it is meeting the needs of patients; initial feedback has been very positive.

Management co-lead: David Barry

Physician co-lead: Christopher Obuchowski, MD

Labor co-leads: Heather Thompson and Mellodee Syler, UFCW Local 555