ABSTRACT
A kidney transplant appointment in a hospital required a 107-day elapsed time in a hospital [1] from the time a patient was selected to the time of actual approval for the transplant. This affected the hospital’s ability to take more patients because some patients did not meet the qualifications for a transplant. In addition, many patients were frustrated because of almost 4 months of waiting. The two critical steps in the qualification were (a) the review process, which was done by a team, and (b) the clinical assessment process. They looked for solutions. They discovered that there were several redundant steps in the two processes. They combined the two processes and simplified the work. (The details are proprietary.) With some minor improvements, they reduced the appointment cycle time to about 57 days-a 47% reduction in the total time! This allowed them to process more patients with less staff.
