Enhancing Operational Efficiency in One day service clinic with Google AppSheet and Lean concepts

Abstract

The One Day Service Clinic focuses on enhancing the efficiency of medical care, particularly for outpatients requiring short-term hospital stays. The clinic serves approximately 1,000 patients annually. However, inefficiencies in managing procedural beds were identified, which hindered the clinic's ability to deliver optimal patient care. To address these challenges, a value stream analysis was conducted to identify the root causes, employing a Fishbone Diagram. Additionally, Lean principles were applied to increase value for patients by reducing waste within the work processes. Using the Google AppSheet application, the clinic successfully reduced the number of operational steps from 10 to 8, leading to a significant reduction in service time. Specifically, the post-procedural process time decreased by 37.38%, and the appointment scheduling time was reduced by 63.3%. The issue of duplicate bed reservations was eliminated entirely, achieving a 100% reduction. Furthermore, the efficiency of recording patient care statistics was enhanced, enabling the use of this data for continuous improvement and further development of clinic processes.