An operations management analysis of the surgical clinic at Boston Medical Center, quantifying current processes and giving recommendations for improving future performance.
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Talk about how the data was collectedOur data points to a wide variation in the time it takes to complete each step in the process, largely because the process is different for each patient and because a lot is dependent on constantly changing variables, including available doctor and room capacity.Steps from check-in to triage to examination to consultation – point to wide variation along the way. Generally, long times both to wait for resident examination and for the examination itself.
Though our discussions with doctors and patients, we noticed that there were some differences between the amount of time a doctor expects to spend with a patient and the amount of time a patient expects to spend with a doctor. Because of their long list of patients, doctors aim to do the best job possible while simultaneously being efficient. This leads to them trying to spend a short period of time with each patient.The patient, on the other hand, expects that it will take a long period of time in order for the doctor’s examination to be thorough. According to our survey, patients expect to spend about 39 minutes with the medical staff, including triage, examination, and consultation. In reality, they spend about 23 minutes on average with the medical staff. This difference between the patient’s expectation, the doctor’s expectation, and the actual experience leads to a misalignment between the expectations of stakeholders.