Make Your Clinics Flow with Synchrony

Book excerpt: Synchrony is the ability of a healthcare process to control the pace of the physician process and the pace of the patient process such that the physician and patient are ready for each other at the same time, without waste or delay. When a process achieves synchrony, the patient does not wait for the doctor, nor does the doctor wait for the patient. Dr. Dennis Han is an ophthalmologist specializing in diseases of the retina at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Froedtert Memorial Hospital; Aneesh Suneja is an engineer and lean consultant who worked with Dr. Han to transform his practice. With the help of Suneja, Han’s patients experienced an 85% reduction in non-value added wait times, and a corresponding 97% “top box” rating on patient satisfaction surveys (“strongly agree to recommend this doctor’s office to others”). Financially, his practice saw a 25% year-over-year increase in relative value units (RVU) production and a 41% increase in payments due to increased physician availability. If you are a physician, clinic manager, administrator, technician, or provider of health services in a clinic setting, you can use the guidelines described in this book to effect a transformation as well. "Thank you, doctor Dennis Han, MD, and co-author Aneesh Suneja, MBA, for this marvelous work that applies Lean principles in healthcare settings. The focus on physician medical clinics is a brave venture into this complex, hectic world that has traditionally been dominated by physicians with a predominant emphasis on patient volume, and subsequent billing volume, versus caring for their customers... This important work is essential for just about all existing physician clinics." Dale Farris Healthcare quality improvement specialist with 25 years experience. "Lean principles have opened up more slots for patient care allowing better clinic and staff utilization, and have increased patient throughput while reducing employee overhead and burnout. There is a joy on the faces of the staff when they get to leave the office earlier than expected because lean principles have been deployed." Jose Martinez, MD Practicing physician and beneficiary of the “Synchrony” "Physician office managers and their medical staffs would be the primary targets for this book. However, I also see it being applicable to the higher educational setting...[such as in colleges and institutions teaching healthcare improvement.]" Jim Bente Vice President, Planning and Institutional Effectiveness, College of duPage Adjunct Faculty, Carnegie Mellon University