high-level project portfolio
Six Sigma Lean Belt
- Situation: Modality over budget by $3,600/month
- Task: Bring within budget
- Action: SIPOC, 5 Whys, Kanban visual controls, control plan, RACI, SOP, QlikView and Excel to discover and resolve department paying for other departments' linen
- Result: $52,404/annual savings
Six Sigma Green Belt
- Situation: Long average 45minute turn-around time (TAT) from time exam ordered to begun for EC Head Without Contrast
- Task: Decrease TAT to 30min (goal based on collab with EC, benchmarking, and trauma designation)
- Action: Process capability report, fishbone diagram, 2 sample T-test, 5 whys, monitoring, weekly updates, adjusting staff schedule, EPIC build to include a pop-up at 30minutes prompting technologists to document reason for delay, and staff education
- Result: TAT now within 30 minutes for critical Level One Trama Emergency patients
Program Manager- Business Continuity
- Situation: Outdated procedures online and in hardcopy form developed before Radiology fortified downtime procedures
- Task: Educate staff as to the existence of the resources and how to use them. Ensure downtime procedures reflect current workflows and information
- Action: Built strong partnerships with Organizational Resilience and other departments, revising Radiology’s Business Continuity Plan (BCP). Enhanced emergency preparedness through Everbridge training, system updates, new Fusion software integration, updated policies, and new workflow processes
- Result: Lead committee to continually assess and update response. Radiology is significantly more prepared, with fewer gaps and improved communication across departments for better BCP alignment. Our efforts are setting a positive example for the organization, promoting streamlined, patient-focused processes.
Badge Review- Security and Supplies
- Situation: Staff both inside and outside of Radiology had unrestricted access, raising security and inventory management concerns
- Task: Ensure access to Radiology aligned with job descriptions and functions, and identify discrepancies in the IR supplies inventory
- Action: Conducted an audit of badge readers for high-risk areas such as MRI Zones 3 and 4, and IR supply rooms. Additionally, reviewed personnel access and documentation practices, which prompted the IR manager to seek reimbursement from the responsible units for unaccounted supplies
- Result: $23,645.10 recuperated from identification of borrowed supplies from IR totaling from improved access control in Radiology and safer patient care environment
Discontinuation of Lead Shielding
- Situation: Change in policy per regulatory and radiology governing agencies, required comprehensive education for staff at all levels, and corporate approval was necessary for implementation, amid concerns about its sensitive nature
- Task: Educate staff across the system, gain corporate approval, and develop a strategy to address potential anxiety related to the project
- Action: Created, assigned, and monitored completion of Voyager module for technologists; Facilitated meetings between department heads to introduce program; Collaborated with Legal, Compliance, and Marketing to refine the approach and scope to align with higher patient satisfaction
- Result: Achieved system-wide awareness and support for the project, obtained corporate approval with a smoother transition, and successfully rolled out the initiative with full buy-in and no incident
Patient Education Library and Website
- Situation: Analyze Press Ganey reports and patient feedback to identify improvement opportunities, resulting in rescheduling, waste of resources, and low customer satisfaction
- Task: Leading patient experience teams in data-driven initiatives to enhance patient satisfaction. Update existing, create new documents, and create awareness
- Action: Worked with multimodality subject matter experts, Information Services (IS), MyChart, Cadence, HelloWorld, Epic Radiant, Patient Experience, and Marketing teams to prepare educational documents for the most common and most frequently rescheduled exams
- Result: Once an exam is scheduled, patients automatically receive a link to the respective educational PDF. Patients now present prepared, there are less reschedules, and there is positive customer feedback.
15-minute STAT Turn-around Time (TAT)
- Situation: STAT turnaround times averaged 45 minutes
- Task: Bring within 15-minute goal
- Action: Created dashboard for weekly reporting, Physician and clinical staff education, Tracking and audit of outliers
- Result: STAT response time now within 15 minutes
Right Patient/Right Procedure Safety Events
- Situation: Previous safety reporting system and culture was interpreted as punitive and negative by staff. Through documenting and reporting out safety events, I noticed an apparent increase in frequency of clock resets.
- Task: Promote positive safety culture and reduce safety events
- Action: Conduct data mining and root cause analysis using RL6 Safety Scoop to address patient safety, develop education, scheduling, and workflow solutions to enhance customer experience and operational efficiency
- Result: Comprehensive campaign involving: education, application, reporting, and adherence. Tracking for improvements now under way
Scheduling/ Decision Tree Workflow
- Situation: Leading conversion from General Scheduling Questions (GSQ) to Decision Tree between Radiology, Information Services (IS), Epic Radiant, Cadence, HelloWorld, and Scheduling
- Task: Build scheduling software which reflects clinical operations and allows for resource utilization
- Action: Map out workflow, identify barriers and generate consensus from all stakeholders, direct testing, quality assurance, and user training to ensure technical functional requirements
- Result: Seamless integration of multiple systems transition and adoption
Third-Party Vendor Knowledge Hand-Off
- Situation: Given short notice of third-party vendor contract non-renewal
- Task: Ensure projects stay course
- Action: Sought a handoff plan for knowledge transfer from third-party vendor
- Result: Full knowledge transfer conducted including pending items closed out and comprehensive packages handed over to organization by contract termination deadline
Internal Town Hall Meetings
- Situation: Lack of interest from staff, low attendance, relayed information not hitting goals
- Task: Requested anonymous feedback from staff
- Action: More engagement, removed Teams link, required in-person attendance, incorporated pop quizzes with prizes, added staff recognition, kudos, promotions
- Result: Strong attendance, increased morale confirmed by feedback, improved customer satisfaction scores