Electronic Health Records (EHR, EMR)

Oncology infusion treatments are highly individualized and can’t simply be scheduled regularly like hair or spa appointments. Because of the volatile nature of infusion treatment demand, infusion centers run into common problems of long wait times, midday bottlenecks during which chair demand is at or beyond maximum capacity and overworked nursing staff who can’t take time for lunches or days off. By using iQueue for Infusion Centers by LeanTaaS, facilities can develop a mathematically-driven scheduling solution tailored to their own unique circumstances.

Hartford HealthCare operates 7 hospitals and 13 outpatient infusion centers in Connecticut. Hartford HealthCare faced challenges in level-loading appointments across the day, as well as adding in patients and scheduling coordinated infusion visits with clinics. Within two weeks after implementing iQueue for Infusion Centers by LeanTaaS, Hartford HealthCare saw improvement in level-loading of appointments, as well as greater utilization in the early mornings and late afternoons. In addition, nurses used iQueue’s Nurse Allocation tool to build their own acuity grid and balance their workloads.

Presbyterian Medical Center (PMC), a 576-bed tertiary hospital serving Charlotte, North Carolina, is part of the Novant Health healthcare system. PMC operates an infusion center where staff struggled with scheduling patient treatments, leading to high wait times and added stress for staff. Implementing iQueue for Infusion Centers by LeanTaaS helped PMC staff schedule patients more efficiently, reducing midday bottlenecks and creating a smoother patient flow even during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data iQueue captures is allowing PMC to improve workflows, as well as predict and plan for busy times.

As healthcare facilities work to recover from the impact of COVID-19, they face ever-growing patient volumes. The need to match hospital capacity with patient demand is beyond the abilities of EHR systems and manual scheduling. The sophisticated algorithms used by the LeanTaaS iQueue suite of solutions focus on one asset each: inpatient beds, infusion center chairs and operating rooms. The powerful tools enable hospitals to use their assets more efficiently for increased revenue, lowered costs and improved patient outcomes.

Many facilities are still clearing elective surgery backlogs created because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so streamlining the OR scheduling process is more important than ever. But relying on manual scheduling methods can lead to unfilled time or missed communications. iQueue for Operating Rooms by LeanTaaS reduces errors and optimizes your room and time placement.

Managing inpatient bed capacity presents a challenge even in normal times, but even more so in crisis situations. Inefficiencies along a patient journey can cost an estimated $9,000 per bed per year – a significant impact on a hospital’s bottom line. Manual scheduling simply can’t keep up with the complex factors influencing bed capacity. iQueue for Inpatient Beds by LeanTaaS is a cloud-based platform that uses predictive analytics and near real-time data to empower frontline staff to make the right decisions on bed scheduling.

Every minute of operating room time can represent hundreds of dollars in revenue, yet block time is going unused in many hospitals. This leads to unnecessary costs, lost revenue and dissatisfied patients and staff. iQueue for Operating Rooms by LeanTaaS helps surgeons and clinic schedulers easily find and request currently unbooked OR time on their mobile device.

Most infusion centers face the same three problems: long patient wait times, underutilized resources and unhappy nursing staff. EHRs and manual scheduling methods aren’t equipped to handle the complexity of scheduling infusion appointments, but iQueue for Infusion Centers by LeanTaaS uses algorithms to manage schedules that ramp up and down smoothly and use staff and resources more effectively.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought a rise in chest X-rays and CT scans related to the disease. With on-site staff limited for their safety, teleradiologists allowed hospitals and outpatient providers to be supported around the clock. LG monitors help make it possible for radiologists to read images remotely through high-resolution monitors and supportive software that allows care teams to view the same image and collaborate on a diagnosis.

While the 'robot' aspect of RPA gets most of the attention, successful implementation centers on the people and processes that will be impacted by the technology – and in a healthcare system where burnout is rampant, there are plenty of those.