Imaging Services

The Imaging services Department at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital provides  services to a patient population with highly variable needs.  The variability at each step of the process can impact patient experience and the operations of the department.  The process can potentially be improved through redesigned work flows and changes in operating processes.

Our objective is to maximize the Imaging Services’ machine utilization while also improving patient experience by reducing wait time through the minimization of scan delays.   Opportunities include emphasis on proactive thinking in patient preparation, optimizing operating hours for increased efficiency, and improving data capture for monitoring performance metrics.

The focus of the analysis centers on the flow of patients through the department.  Shadowing and interviewing technologists, nurses, radiologists, and schedulers, along with observing the processes involved in patient imaging studies allowed us to detail the end to end process map.  In addition to observation, we performed data analysis using R and Tableau using data from both EPIC and iCenter to support our observational findings with data-driven evidence.  We cleaned the data and performed multi-dimensional analysis on machine utilization and sensitivity to operating profiles, exam variability by procedure and hour of day, scheduling gaps throughout the day, and On Call exam hours.

Our data analysis, observation periods, and interviews revealed the following opportunities for improved quality and efficiency: Proactive patient preparation (including efficient bed usage and break scheduling), optimizing the hours of operation given lower utilizations during tail hours (as well as revisiting On Call services), updating the protocol durations to more accurately reflect historical data, and utilizing analytics solutions such as a Tableau dashboard.  This combination of operational improvements will help increase patient access, reduce delays, and provide data-driven insight to help the department understand and monitor its performance to achieve continuous improvement.

Jennifer Belz

Management Science and Engineering, B.S.

Computer Science, Minor

Incoming Consultant at Navigant

Alison Jahansouz

Management Science and Engineering, M.S.

Computer Science, B.S.

Johnny Weger

Mathematical and Computation Science, B.S.

Incoming Business Analyst at Deloitte Consulting

Wills McMahon

Management Science and Engineering, B.S.

Incoming Product Manager at iTradeNetwork