Uncover Hidden Capacity in Your Practice Through Standardization

Uncover Hidden Capacity in Your Practice Through Standardization – October 16, 2019
By Jessica McBurney, RN

How many times have you forgotten something at home because you were rushed to get out the door? Go to pay for your morning coffee only to realize you left your wallet at home, or your phone on your nightstand? For some people following the same steps in a routine can help prevent this annoying situation because it safeguards against forgetting individual items. For example, by using PWK (“phone-wallet-keys”) as a memory tool, you can remember to grab your phone, then your wallet, and finally your keys before heading out. Using this phrase and grabbing the items in this order can make sure you never leave the house without them. This is an example of standardization.

How does this apply to healthcare? Many people would agree that the healthcare industry is full of inefficiencies; but where do we begin when processes vary between practices? In our experience the answer may lie in the use of standardization. Let’s dig into that:

What is standardization?

Standardization, simply stated, is the practice of making the steps in a process uniform; from employee to employee. Following the same steps in the same order to develop a repeatable process delivering a similar outcome, independent of who is performing the task. Whether that means answering the phone and using the same format of questions or collecting vitals in the same order every time, standards can be immeasurably helpful. Following the current “best practices” staff are able to complete their duties efficiently and effectively while maintaining high quality.

Applying standards

Let’s take the above example of answering the phone. Say your office staff often receive calls from patients hoping to speak to the clinical staff but everyone who answers the phone tries to jot down the details in whatever order the information is provided. You may find that phone numbers are incomplete or missing, or specifics, like duration of symptoms or date of birth, were never provided. There is information that would be helpful to get initially but it’s always variable in how it’s presented to your clinical staff. This is a situation where standards would be helpful and effective. Upon hearing that a patient would like to speak to someone clinical following a set of standard questions could provide all of the information your staff needs, and in a reliable and consistent manner. Resulting in your clinical staff having all of the information they needed to triage the patient’s concern appropriately.

What about personalization?

Upon hearing the term “standardization” many people worry that healthcare will become rigid and not account for the human element of individualized care. However, it can mean quite the opposite. Standardizing processes helps to eliminate noise because clinicians and other staff are following a standard process. As such, providers are able to be more complete, efficient, and effective in their clinical practice. Standards allow clinicians and providers to identify something quickly when it is out of the norm. Remember that standards often change as new information is learned and clinical practice advances, so patient care would always be as effective as possible when standards are prioritized and routinely updated. This approach also leads to better use of resources and time. When healthcare is more efficient, we all win in the long run.

Benefits of Standardization

There are a multitude of benefits to the application of standard work in a medical practice, including:

• Guarantees consistency – tasks are completed in a pre-defined, optimized way
• Improves clarity – a standard process will eliminate the need for guesswork and provide clearly defined expectations
• Promotes productivity – your employees won’t need to ask around or spend time searching for supplies
• Boosts employee morale – employees can take pride in having mastered a process
• Perfects patient experience – every process is handled in an efficient manner; eliminating unnecessary friction
• Reduces training time – with each process optimized all team members are performing tasks in the same fashion, creating consistency for a new employee
• Provides agile staffing – with consistent workflows, staff can easily be shared across sites to provide coverage while creating a team-approach to care

When do standards change?

It is important to recognize that standards are not static. Standards improve a process by making it more consistent but using standards doesn’t mean that you can never adjust them or make changes. In fact, the goal is to evaluate continually and revisit your standard processes to ensure they remain current and efficient; a process we call continuous improvement.

Applying standards in your practice

If you are not currently using standardization, try thinking of processes that are repeated throughout the day and identify if there is a better and more consistent way to perform this task. There can be a lot of standard processes put into action, you just need to look for these opportunities and take advantage of hidden capacity in your practice.

Keep an eye out for our next article as we continue to dive deeper into operational efficiencies.