Paediatric Orthopaedic Clinic at the Childrens Hospital of Western Ontario Case Solution

1. What is the issue faced by the Paediatric Orthopaedic Clinic at the Children's Hospital of Western Ontario?

Today, more than ever, people's physical and mental well-being—and hence their ability to contribute to society and the economy—depend on health care services. There have been recent developments in the healthcare industry that have made it more difficult for many organisations throughout the world to provide the services their consumers and patients need. Dr. Kellie Leitch is working to reduce patient wait times at the paediatric orthopaedic clinic at Children's Hospital of Western Ontario and is providing advice to both the clinic's client and other hospitals in the area to do so.

Because it heightens certain psychological impacts and also influences the socio-economic demographic schedule of a person to carry out, time plays a significant part in the health sector of patients, including children and their parents or supervision. The length of time it takes for a patient to get care at a paediatric orthopaedic clinic depends on a number of different clinical and medical processes. These include everything from a patient's arrival at the clinic's front desk until the moment they depart, including everything from registration to document verification.

Dr. Kellie Leitch is set on improving the clinic by reducing the amount of time patients have to wait to be seen by a doctor. Dr. Kellie is committed to improving hospital efficiency in three key areas: human resource management, hospital administration, and financial planning; patient feedback and suggestions; and regional and national productivity. With the use of patient surveys, Dr. Kellie can identify wait-time issues and improve the quality of care she provides to her patients. Thus, other hospitals in the county operating under CHWO might adopt them as a model to improve patient care and operational efficiency.

3. Wait times in healthcare are gaining attention in the business press. What elements of the article “Psychology of waiting lines” are applicable in this case?

Front Desk: registration and verification of documents

The receptionists at the management desks are the first to greet patients upon their arrival. Initial patient appointments are scheduled once verification of patient documentation, including insurance health cards and referral paperwork, is received. Once it is the patient's time to be seen, he or she will be called from the waiting room. Except in life-or-death situations, patients in clinics and hospitals are seen on a "first come, first serve" basis. Two or three nurses now review the papers of new and returning patients, while a third nurse verifies the documents referred from the physicians' notes to direct patients to their appointments or to the radiology department for X-ray examinations. Dr. Kellie has observed that the waiting times for new and returning patients differ at the facility, as the former is more likely to be directed to have an X-ray examination, which may take some time, while the latter has previously had such an examination. In order for doctors to assess a patient's development, they need to take fresh X-rays at regular intervals after seeing the previous ones. As a result, they take longer than regular patient visits to the clinic.

Radiology Department

The patient checks in at the radiology department's front desk, where she or he submits the internal referral paperwork and waits in line. Specifics, such as whether an upper or lower extremity X-ray is needed, are highlighted in the corresponding form papers. The technicians in charge of operating the X-ray equipment make the necessary adjustments so that it can perform the specific sort of X-ray examination requested by the doctor. Here, patients wait to be summoned by the X-ray technician.