Quality Scholars - Kalyn Barger
My project looked at causes of delays in procedure start times for sedation Interventional Radiology procedures performed in our minor procedure OR suite at HealthAlliance Hospital, primarily focusing on the patient arriving late to their procedure. With mitigation, our team was able to reduce delays from an average of 28 minutes to 17 minutes. Some of the countermeasures we implemented to help improve patients arriving on time included training our Interventional Radiology schedulers to accurately update the pre-procedure arrival times in Epic from the default (15 minute prior arrival), pre-procedural nursing phone calls, utilizing the various forms of communication in Epic that allow patients to receive automatic reminders (email/text/MyChart), and educating the Radiology Registration staff to re-direct patients to the OR check in desk when appropriate.
Quality Scholars Program
The Quality Scholars Program is a professional development opportunity for any UMass Memorial Health caregiver interested in quality improvement and gaining the skills and knowledge to accomplish projects in their area. During the nine month program participants work with groups, mentors and Lean coaches to develop skills for quality improvements. At the completion of the course the participants present their projects at a graduation ceremony. This year there were three graduates from Radiology. - Betty Watari, Yasmin Carter, PhD and Kalyn Barger.
