Improving patient experience focus of PIP

The Process Improvement Program (PIP), which began in late October and is an NHS-wide priority for the next few years, focuses on improving the flow of patients along the entire continuum of care, from arrival in the Emergency Department to admission to an inpatient unit and ultimately to discharge from hospital.

“We are very pleased to be one of 17 hospitals in Ontario selected by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to participate in the PIP,” says President and CEO Debbie Sevenpifer. “This is an exciting opportunity to do things differently to improve both the experience of our patients and staff.”
The eight-month PIP is part of the Ministry’s ER Wait Time Strategy and is tied to both the Ministry’s and NHS’s priorities to reduce wait times in the ER and improve patient and staff satisfaction.

The St. Catharines General Site was able to apply for PIP funding since it was the NHS site previously approved by the Ministry to participate in the Pay for Results ER initiative. Learnings from the PIP will be rolled out across all of our sites.

“Our participation in the PIP will build on our great work to date in enhancing the way we provide care and also identify areas for improvement,” says Vice President Anne Atkinson.

“Much like individual links that form one strong chain, the focus of the PIP is to bring together all of the different aspects of the patient experience to enhance the overall experience for patients and staff,” says PIP ER team lead Lorie Luinstra-Toohey.

The PIP is now in the Solution Design Phase, the third of five phases. Based on feedback from staff and physicians, the focus of this phase is on identifying patient flow solutions that:

• Reduce time between triage and physician assessment
• Reduce time between orders for tests and physician reassessment
• Reduce the Bed Empty Time from when one patient leaves a bed until the next one occupies it
• Reduce room-to-room transfers
• Improve predictive discharge processes

“All of these opportunities are interlinked and each opportunity has multiple problems and root causes,” says PIP Inpatient team lead Glenn Wiffin. “To be effective, solutions need to be developed around root causes rather than the symptoms of a problem.”

“These solutions need to come from our physicians and staff,” says Glenn. “They impact patient care on a daily basis – whether that be through cleaning rooms, processing orders, transporting patients or providing direct patient care.”

“If physicians and staff have ideas to improve our processes, no matter how big or small, we encourage them to contact any member of the PIP team,” says Lorie.

Lorie can be reached by telephone at ext. 44578 or by email at lorie.luinstra-toohey@niagarahealth.on.ca, and Glenn can be reached at ext. 44577 or glenn.wiffin@niagarahealth.on.ca. A list of all team members can be found on the PIP section of source•net. «