Speaker 1: Are you looking for better patient outcomes and operational excellence in your healthcare business? Improving your healthcare processes is bound to result in long-term, strategic initiatives that are continuous and ongoing. It requires the participation of leadership and frontline employees. You can't just achieve it using a top-down approach. Instead, you have to gather feedback from all levels of your healthcare organization and implement process improvement in order to reach goals. I'm Noel with JotForm, and if you're ready to improve your process, stick around. When it comes to process improvement in healthcare, the overarching goals are better patient outcomes and operational excellence. Take some time to work through these seven steps when you implement process improvement in your organization. The first step is choosing priorities carefully. One of the major hurdles that organizations face when implementing process improvement is that they begin with too many priorities. With dozens of targets and goals, it can be challenging to focus on each area with the kind of concentration required to make a difference. Instead, try selecting three to five priorities, such as improving quality of care and becoming financially efficient. Then, work toward achieving those metrics. Once you've met those priorities, you can move on to other goals. One of your key objectives should be enhancing patient care, regardless of the kind of healthcare organization you are. Key performance indicators for this objective can include length of stay, mortality rate, and cost for admitted patients. It's vital to understand the entire patient process, from the moment they call to book an appointment to the time they're discharged and no longer require care. Doing so allows you to determine which points in the patient journey require streamlining. Another important step in process improvement is considering how to optimize the flow of individual patients within the hospital or clinic. By doing so, you can reduce patient wait times and staff overtime. Both are beneficial. This can also lead to a better patient experience. Let's say a patient has appointments with multiple departments during one visit. What's the best course of action? Should they visit the obstetrics department first, or is it more efficient to begin in cardiology? Employees in the healthcare field, especially frontline workers, may not be familiar with process improvement methodologies like Six Sigma and Lean. Introducing new ways of working with unfamiliar language can be stressful and confusing. This is where creating a common language comes in handy. Process improvement may be more successful if you use plain language. The important key performance indicators during the process improvement are related to patient outcomes. It's also important to keep an eye on metrics related to the processes themselves, such as how long a particular process takes. This way you can get a handle on which processes may be negatively affecting patient outcomes, and then streamline those workflows. Process improvement is a long-term initiative, not a passive fad. It can take time for staff to adjust, and some employees may not initially feel comfortable with the new changes. As a result, it's important to celebrate the initial impact and showcase quick wins publicly. This helps build faith in the initiatives and encourages staff to continue seeking ways to streamline workflows. Regardless of which process improvement methodologies you use, it's vital to have a data-driven approach. Measuring process key performance indicators will help you detect those early wins and even potential problems. In order to continuously improve your processes, you have to check your data frequently to make sure you reach your objectives. With process improvement, your healthcare organization will be on its journey to better patient care and operational efficiency. Hone in on your priorities and keep working to improve them. Let's do a quick review before we go. To implement process improvement in your healthcare organization, just follow these seven steps. Choose your priorities carefully. Enhance your patient care. Improve patient flow. Create a common language. Prioritize process key performance indicators. Celebrate early impact. And focus on your data to keep improving. Thanks for watching JotForm. I'm Noel. We'll see you next time. [♪ music playing ♪