Original CT Scan Process Assignment
Order ID 53563633773 Type Essay Writer Level Masters Style APA Sources/References 4 Perfect Number of Pages to Order 5-10 Pages Description/Paper Instructions
Original CT Scan Process Assignment
Dr. Steve Foster, head of radiology at a large, multispecialty hospital in the Midwestern United States, had to create a plan to maximize utilization of the three new CT scanner units purchased by this hospital. Each new scanner could provide high-resolution images in less than seven minutes, compared to the thirty-two minutes for the hospital’s six older CT scanners.
Foster needed to design a new process that would benefit the greatest number of patients and also maximize the return on the considerable financial investment the new units represented. Your job is to analyze the case and provide solutions and recommendations. In your analysis, assume that scanners are operated for 300 days in a year.
Here are a couple of guideline questions that you should consider in your analysis:
Draw the process flow map for the original CT scan process.
Provide capacity evaluation for both old and new scanners for the original process flow. Compare the profit per hour from using an old scanner versus using a new scanner.
What specific improvements might be made to improve the efficiency of the CT process flow? Provide a process flow map for the improved CT scan process.
- What level of scanning throughput could the hospital achieve after the recommended improvements? What hourly margins would result from using the new scanners with all improvements in place?
Introduction
From 1998 to 2001, the Radiology department at the Midwestern hospital performed a vast amount of body scans by utilizing CT scanners that were based on technology that was a decade old. Increased profit and improved efficiency were a concern since costs needed to be justified for a six-million-dollar investment that occurred for three new CT scanners.
The new units that were invested on for the hospital will replace the six older CT scanners since they require more than thirty minutes to scan each patient. The newer CT scanners will allow time to be reduced on both scanning a patient and the technician’s performance. The head of the radiology department, Dr. Foster, confronted challenges within the unit since it was related to how an increase in utilization can occur by having a decent return on investment. Dr. Foster faces a lot of responsibility while leaning out processes that have been set in place so that inefficiencies can be removed while creating a new process. The present process will need to be redesigned so that a shortened process can be developed to reduce a technician’s time while utilizing the newer CT scan units.
Problem Statement
Technological advances in medical imaging technology propelled improvement in quality and reduced the length of time of computed tomography (CT) scanning. In taking advantage of such improvements, the challenge of Dr. Steve Foster and the radiology division is to not only utilize the higher throughput of the scanners to benefit the greatest number of patients but also to maximize the return on the considerable financial investment they represented (cite).
Process Related Problems
Dr. Foster and the radiology team recognized that employing the new CT scanners in the previous process flow would not optimize utilization. Therefore, a reconstructed process flow is required to maximize the efficiency of the increased scanning capacity of the CT scanners in a way that corresponds to demand. Sheer utilization of the new CT scanners is inadequate without the implementation of an improved process.
In order to maximize the decreased scanning time, elements of the non-scanning process must be reduced to cut expenses, eliminate bottlenecks, and maximize return on investment. To reduce time spent on non-scanning processes, the layout of the CT scanning area configuration must be altered to reduce the time currently need to gather patients, move them to the CT scanning room, as well as other steps in the process. Furthermore, attempting to shift the sequential task of the process to a more parallel method would reduce the current interdependency that is impeding progress. To capitalize on the change in the sequence of the scanning and non-scanning tasks, it is essential for the roles of the nurses and technologists to be reevaluated.
Competitive Priorities and Operations Strategy
In healthcare there is immense competition as a multitude of alternative options exist. To differentiate themselves from their competition, Dr. Steve Foster and the radiology division must continue to reduce scanning time and produce high-quality imaging. To do so, the division has taken a branched operational strategy approach- invest in innovation and adapt current processes to increase productivity, maximize return on investment, and improve quality.
The strategic operational action plans include:
Utilizing lean management to assess the current scanning process.
Configuring clear operational procedures to accompany the implementation of the multi-detector CT units.
Implementing the use of the multi-detector CT units.
Establish an auditing system that can help in benchmarking and provide troubleshooting guidelines.
Training employees based on the amended operational procedures in an attempt to improve workflow.
Auditing the established operating procedures at regular intervals to identify potential waste.
Write and implement procedures regarding machinery and build an acceptance scale of performance.
Capacity evaluation
Currently, the process time for the six-old scanner is thirty-two minutes which relatively relates to the thirty-two minutes of a technician’s times to a nurse’s time of fourteen minutes per patient scan. The resulting work flow for one patient scan is best displayed as:
A: Nurse locates patient in waiting area (2 minutes)
B: Nurse moves patient to CT scanning room (2 minutes)
C: Nurse places IV line (2 minutes)
D: Tech selects CT scan protocol and prepares machine (3 minutes)
E: Tech preforms CT scan (17 minutes)
F: Tech monitor CT image reconstruction (10 minutes),
G: Nurse assists patient off the table (1 minute),
H: Nurse returns patient to changing area (2 minutes)
I: Nurse changes linens and cleans CT scan room (2 minutes),
J: Nurse refills contrast injector (3 minutes),
K: Technician codes and distributes CT image (2 minutes).
This process demonstrates how the technician occupies eighteen more minutes per patient scan than the nurse does, which results in creating a bottleneck during the procedure. The current process displays the technician and nurse performing several responsibilities, which displays the duties being performed at a somewhat similar pace while the nurse is having a seventeen-minute break and the technician is conducting scans.
Newer CT units will exponentially decrease the technician’s process times and will allow for the work flow between the nurse and technician to change. The original CT process requires both six nurses and six technologists which increase operating expenses when calculating their hourly wages. The newer process would consist of only three CT scan equipment, which will decrease the employee hourly wage by fifty percent. The hourly margin is critical to review since it is dependent on how many hours the CT scan processes while involving six nurses, technologists, and scanners. Below are the calculations for old CT scan process vs the new CT scan process:
Old CT Scan Process
Capacity for the nurse = 60/14
= 4.3 scan/hour
Capacity for the technologist = 60/32
=1.875 scan/hour (process capacity)
Calculations for 6 CT Scanners in Radiology Department
Each CT scanner would complete = 55,000 / 6 scans
= 9167 scans
Number of opening hours in a year = 9167 scans per year / 1.875 scans per hour
= 4889 hours
Shifts needed if there are 300 working days = 4889 hours/300
= 16.29 hours (2 8 hours shifts)
Total revenue for a CT scan per year = 1.875(500)
= $937.5
Total cost for a CT scan per year is = 1.875(50) + 50 + 35
= $178.75
Hourly margin for a CT scan per year = 937.5 – 178.75
= $758.75
New CT Scan Process
Throughput time = 16.5 minutes
Capacity for the nurse = 60/14
= 4.3 scan/hour (max capacity)
Capacity for the technologist = 60/6.5
= 9.23 scan/hour
Calculations for new CT Scanners in the Radiology department
Total revenue for a CT scan per year = 4.3(500)
= $2150
Total cost for a CT scan per year is = (4.3×50) + 50 + 35
= $300
Hourly margin for a CT scan per year = $2150 – 300
= $1850 (max profit)
Recommendation
CT process flow improvements
With adding the new CT scanners, the scanning time is drastically reduced, and the CT scan is no longer the bottleneck. This has put stress on the entire process; however, new inefficiencies with the process can now be identified. Addressing the inefficiencies within the process will allow the radiology team increase overall efficiency and complete the maximum number of scans in a day, which will lead to an increase in profit for the hospital.
To improve the efficiency of the CT process flow, the first thing that can be done is for the hospital to place a visual aid in the waiting room, such as a television, showing a list of the first name and last initial of patients who are waiting for scans. Estimated wait times scan can be placed on the screen for patients so they know when it is their turn for a scan. When a nurse is ready for the next patient, that patients name can flash on the screen to let the patient know the staff is ready for them. Another option is for the hospital administration to hand out pagers once a patient checks in. When the nurse finishes a scan and is ready for the next person they can let the desk staff know to page the next person in line. Either of these options could completely eliminate the first step of the process, “locating the patient in the waiting area” and reduce the throughput time by two minutes.
The second thing that can be done to improve the overall efficiency of the process is tied to the step where the nurses change the linens and clean the CT scan room. If linens are not necessary for the CT scan, for instance a rubber pillow/scan surface that can just be wiped clean, the cleaning time can be reduced. Utilizing a 5S system to organize the scan rooms, which would include the cleaning supplies, would help ensure all supplies are in their place and the nurses would know where they are (Grajewski, Malhotra & Ritz man, 2016). This will help maintain the flow efficiency.
Implementing an auto-refill machine for the contrast injector is a third improvement that could be made to improve the overall efficiency of the process. This would eliminate the time needed for the nurse to refill the machine after each patient scan. Depending on the capacity of the auto-refill machine, a staff member could refill the machine with the contrast die on daily or weekly basis, before any patients or seen or at the end of the day after the last patient has been seen.
Lastly, the hospital and radiology department could standardize all scanning rooms so that each room has the exact same set up. The standardization of the scanning rooms would help maintain the efficient throughput CT scan process. This would be done by ensuring that all team members are able to perform their roles in the process as efficiently as possible no matter what scanning room they go into.
A process flow map for the improved CT scan process can be found below:
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