DMAIC Approach for Transplant Operation Room Scheduling and Utilization Improvement at UW Health University Hospital

The Transplant department at UW Health University Hospital was experiencing a significant utilization problem in the operating room. The Transplant team initially suspected that its only problem was a shortage of block time until the OR Management team provided a report of utilization levels that showed Transplant had an average utilization level that varied from 42% to 173%. With this information, the Transplant team reached out to UW ISyE for assistance. The goal of our project was to find a way to decrease average utilization variability and average utilization mean to a more acceptable standard. This project was completed using FOCUS-PDCA and DMAIC process improvement methodologies.

 

We began the project by defining our project motivation, framework, scope, and aim statement. After establishing a charter, we conducted a situational analysis through interviews, workgroup meetings, and historical data attainment. The interviews and workgroup meetings enabled us to create process diagrams to map out the complex task of scheduling a transplant case in the OR. By understanding this process, we could identify some pain points and root causes to the scheduling issues at hand. Our attainment of historical surgical data allowed us to begin data analysis, where we specifically focused on utilization levels and delays. The analyses concluded that even at the most optimized surgical schedule, the average utilization still exceeds 100%, indicating that not enough block time is currently available.

Following process mapping and data analysis, our team began to brainstorm solutions. The brainstorming process started by conducting literature reviews to search for and understand similar case studies and approaches that had been used. Generating ideas from both our data analysis and the case studies from the literature review commenced the formation of our project recommendations and solutions.

In this report, we present four recommendations to the UW Health Transplant OR team. First, we recommend that the OR Management team increases block time allotted to the Transplant department. Second, we recommend evaluating OR usage for other departments to OR better understand the block distribution at an organization level and have more insight on block reassignment. Third, we recommend using the provided block time more wisely by “tetrising” surgeries using our optimization model and delay analysis. Fourth and finally, we recommend that the team prioritizes more on organizational needs, such as providing patients a small window to choose their surgery date rather than letting them choose arbitrarily in order to give schedulers more flexibility and schedule the surgeries more optimally to improve utilization. To assist with the implementation of our recommendations, we provide risk mitigation details, methods to check results, and identify ideal future states for utilization, delays, scheduling, and patient autonomy.

Selected Sections of Report Document:

Project Components:

  • Full Report Document

  • Gnatt Chart

  • SIPOC Diagram

  • Process Map

  • Swimland Diagram

  • Fishbone Diagram

  • Utilization Calculations and Figures

  • Scheduling Optimization Model

  • Visualization of Proposed Model Schedule

  • Delay Time Analysis

  • Critical to Quality Tree

  • Ranking of Prioritization Measures

  • Affinity Diagram for Proposed Solutions

  • Queuing System Model

  • Cost Analysis of Proposed Solutions

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Junior Design Laboratory: Dairy Lands Inventory Design

In this project, our team designed a solution to “Dairy Land’s” (fictional company) current inventory sorting process. The solution utilized AGV design and coding to eliminate human error and product damage while optimizing the inventory process to be more efficient.

 

Project Components:

  • Python/Lego Mindstorms coding

  • Design parameters and process capabilities

  • Critical to quality tree (CTQ)

  • Factor Analysis

  • Client meetings and revisions

  • Design prototype

  • FMEA analysis

  • Design efficiency evaluation

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Human Factors Engineering Design and Evaluation:
User Experience Site Design

My project for human factors design was focused on the Walt Disney World website and evaluating its user experience performance and how to improve upon it. The process included user experience brainstorming methods, rapid prototyping, collaboration models and other models used during evaluation.

 
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Simulation and Probabilistic Modeling: Subway Simulation Model

Our project focused on a popular restaurant that is extremely busy during lunch hours on campus. By taking data during lunch hours, we distributed this data to create a queueing model and then improved upon this model so that more students could be served per hour.

 
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Production Planning and Control: Manufacturing Plant Project

This project’s focus was to evaluate and design a new layout for a manufacturing plant as they: moved to a new location; decided whether to outsource welding or not; and find the best utilization for their facility flow.

 
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Project Components:

  • Facility layout

  • Payback analysis

  • Relationship diagrams

  • Capacity analysis

  • Facility flow

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Human Factors Engineering: App Project Prototype

My team’s goal was to create a minimalist, user-focused app that would help college students with access to kitchens to prepare quick, healthy meals because it has been proven that proper diets help people succeed in academic studies.

Project Components: research prototype drawings, OSDs (Operation Sequence Diagrams), calculations and user feedback, app prototype drawings

 
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If you want to learn more about these projects, or others, please contact me!