CLIENT:
CASE STUDY
NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital New York, NY
Testing different room utilization strategies allows for the optimization of patient throughput. An urban, pediatric hospital, Children’s Hospital of New York serves thousands of patients daily. Recently, in its continuous effort to improve service quality, this pediatric care facility hired Array to analyze potential throughput options for a new clinical space. The new space was expected to house three existing clinics, currently operating in three separate parts of the building.
CHALLENGE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A new clinical space needed to house
The NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital (CHoNY) faced a
three existing clinics currently operating
tough situation—combining three separate clinics into one space. The architect
in three separate parts of the building. The
performed an initial feasibility study to determine the maximum amount of space
goal was to reduce patient waiting times
available for the desired renovation. The proposed number of exam rooms that could
and determine how many exam rooms
fit in the space was smaller than the staff expected could support the three clinics
were necessary to support the growing
once combined.
patient population.
Array’s Healthcare Systems Engineer observed the clinic to understand how patients flow through the current system, and worked with staff to discover their ideal patient flow. We worked with hospital staff for two weeks to develop and use a simple time
SOLUTION
study form to capture each major step in the patient care process. Each piece of data played an important role in creating a simulation model.
Throughput Analysis
Array worked closely with CHoNY staff to ensure the simulation model ran just like the
Observing workflow across all three clinics
actual system. We presented the staff with two options for patient throughput. In the
revealed that, despite serving different
first, the three clinics operated separately, but in the same space. Each had dedicated
patient populations, operating processes
exam rooms that were not shared among the clinics. The second allowed the three
were very similar. Array developed a
clinics to share all exam rooms. In this model, the rooms closest to the front of the
simulation model to test various patient
clinic were always used first.
throughput scenarios. This model proved
After seeing how patient waiting time drastically decreased when physicians shared
that sharing resources improved patient
exam rooms, minimizing the need for waiting room space and optimizing the number
throughput and satisfaction, while also
of necessary exam rooms, the staff was able to make critical decisions about the
optimizing resource utilization.
exam rooms, waiting and support spaces. The simulation results allowed CHoNY more flexibility in its planning so renovations would not be necessary in the near future.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
3
Clinics Combined
2
Patient Throughput Options
2 weeks
Observation Data Combined with EMR