Analyzing the preoperative clinic flow

Hi Everyone,
I thought you might like some insight into how CAMTA staff see our patients before the surgery begins each year.
Last night several of us met at the Moreau residence and thanks to the skills of one CAMTA volunteer, Mark Fedorak who is an engineer, we outlined the flow of patients in our clinic. Why you might ask would we try to analyze this?
Each year the clinic has been very busy and very long. There is a constant flow of patients and their family members here and there throughout the large physio centre that the Tierra Nueva lends us on the first Sunday of our project. By the end of the 14hour day we have seen about 100 patients and filled the operating room schedule for two weeks with some open spots for patients who show up later.
But it is really organized confusion! We've adjusted the clinic before and each year it is a little bit smoother and better organized. But we are trying to improve it more! That would be more satisfying for the patients.
We have many small children and some frail elderly. Thus if we can improve the process we can get them out of the clinic sooner. They would rather wait for the day of their surgery at home or with a relative!
Mark Fedorak recorded our description of the patient flow. The people present last night are all CAMTA veterans and they each described their role and the changes they thought could help. Mark also recorded the roles of each clinic staff member. The translator brings the patient to the surgeon and acts as the “patient advocate”. And the surgeon does the obvious thing — takes a history and physical from the surgical perspective and examines the xrays. If the patient needs surgery then the next “station” in the clinic has to be one of nursing, family doctor, anesthesiologist and/or physiotherapist. Sometimes additional tests are needed and for those the patient needs to see a Tierra Nueva nurse or social worker. Every surgical patient needs instructions about when to stop drinking and eating before their surgery. They need their questions answered.
The very first and the very last clinic “stations” are the data entry stops. At the first station we'll enter the patient in the database and print identifying labels for the chart. At the last visit to the data entry personnel we take a photograph and ensure the patient has been through all the steps.
The Tierra Nueva social worker interviews each patient who has surgery planned before they leave the hospital. That ensures all is clear in the patient mind.
Eve Moreau lives in Quito and she has been a translator for us each year. She is the provisional “clinic organizer” since there is a lot of preparatory work in advance of the clinic. She prints and assembles the charts and prepares the signage for the clinic. Eve needs her chance for input into the clinic process. And likewise Darlene Hammell and Doris Kent, our two veteran family doctors need their input too.
All for now and thanks for reading! Please post some comments.
John