'Enjoyable' visit to A&E?

One of the contributors had the misfortune to take our partner to the A&E department at Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport the other day, with a twisted ankle.

The NHS is full of waste, has slow processes and is full of demoralised staff, according to the generally received view. In fact, a pay as you go A&E department has opened locally, run by Casualty Plus, which is an indication that requirements are not being met by the public sector.. Expectations were low and indeed a great deal of reading literature was taken as it was likely to be a long night..

We walked (OK, one of us limped) in. We were greeted by an LED display telling us how long the wait was. We were booked in electronically at reception and were told to wait for the nurse. We waited less than five minutes and an assessment was carried out to determine the severity of the injury - presumably to decide if emergency treatment was required. The injury was judged less serious.

We were directed to the X-ray department, the directions for which were clearly marked on the floor. We waited a short time. The X-ray was taken and transmitted electronically to a central server. We were given a bar coded card which we dropped in a container and asked to wait again. We waited probably ten minutes and then were seen by a nurse who looked at the X-ray and checked with a doctor before seeing us. The nurse's only frustration was that the X-rays were taking some time to come through to the server and was hoping ways could be found to improve this.

Happily, there was no break although the sprain was bad and getting worse. In the consulting room, most if not all medical supplies were marked clearly and the nurse quickly found the correct bandage and gave advice on pain relief and how much to walk/rest.

We left the A&E department, hardly having had time for a coffee. The cycle time from start to finish was 75% of the time which was displayed on the LED display.

I noticed customer satisfaction graphs displayed, rating most key aspects of the service and it seems our experience was not unusual.

Examples of 5S workplace organisation, flow, Kanban, visual management, workflow, Kaizen.........

We hope you never need to go to Stockport A&E but if you ever do look out for the lean processes in evidence...