Starting point
A leading hospital was struggling with long waiting times and rising costs, despite high patient volumes and strong utilisation. Doctors and nursing staff were overloaded with administrative tasks and runaway internal and external coordination. The result was lost time, duplicated work and many iterative process loops. Surveys showed clear dissatisfaction in the workforce, visible in rising sick leave and higher turnover. The credibility of the administrative leadership was in question too: “You keep saying it will get better soon, but nothing is happening!” Hospital management decided to act.
Analysis
Multi-moment analysis (MMA), work-pressure analysis (WPA), calendar analysis and further methods uncovered the root causes. A large share of the working time of expensive medical staff went into planning effort, administrative tasks and alignment meetings. Correspondingly less time was left for value-adding patient care. Facility management and kitchen processes were examined too, because substantial delays originated there as well.
The methods
Multi-moment analysis (MMA)
The MMA records what working time is actually spent on. Using a sampling method, random pre-defined points in time are set at which staff note the activity they are performing at that moment. Waste is recorded as well, for example IT problems, waiting times or rework. That comes to about 10 to 15 sample points per day, and the survey typically runs for two weeks. For the individual staff member it means no more than 10 minutes of additional effort per day. The data is anonymised and aggregated centrally. The result is a precise picture of how time is spent across the hospital, with concrete pointers to where optimisation should start.
Work-pressure analysis (WPA)
The WPA assesses daily workload and staff satisfaction. At the end of each working day, staff note whether it was a successful day or whether various factors disrupted their productivity. Combined with data on working hours and overtime, overload and dissatisfaction become visible. From this, targeted measures can be derived to improve working conditions and reduce stress factors.
Shadowing
In shadowing, an observer accompanies a member of staff through their working day. This builds a precise understanding of actual workflows and problems, and improvement opportunities are identified directly on site.
Measures
Interviews and shadowing across all departments and hierarchies gave the experts a precise picture of daily operations. On that basis, process-optimisation measures were developed and prioritised, among them a substantial simplification of communication processes and formats and new lean and digital processes.
Results
Administrative effort fell and communication processes were streamlined. Waiting times dropped by 20 percent, working hours by 15 percent. Processes in facility management and the hospital kitchen improved markedly as well, and patients are served faster. Overall, value creation in operational patient care doubled. With higher schedule reliability and better quality of care, patient satisfaction rose clearly.
Conclusion
Combining several analysis methods reliably identifies inefficient processes and ways of working and provides the basis for improvement measures. The anonymised approach encourages openness from all stakeholders during the analysis of workload and efficiency and supports implementation. Those who analyse their own working patterns this way often achieve significant improvements on their own.