PROJECT MANAGING A NEW GENERATION OUTPATIENT ENTERPRISE SCHEDULING SOLUTION
By Ken Ryan, PMP
Recently, a large rural medical center was searching for an enterprise-wide solution for
appointment scheduling that would work for patients, schedulers, and service providers.
They selected the Soarian Scheduling application from Siemens Medical Solutions, and
contracted with Vitalize Consulting Solutions, Inc (VCS) to provide project management
services. The current state of the scheduling process was documented, and areas including
those listed below were noted for improvement.
The main strategic drivers of the project included:
- Global scheduling: make sure that all areas who may schedule a patient appointment
can easily see what other services the patient already has scheduled
- Patient convenience: Perform services for the patient on one day if possible;
reduce repeated trips to the medical center
- Resource maximization: Ensure CT, MRI, and other modalities are used to the highest
extent possible; avoid “over-scheduling” and “under-scheduling” when a modality is
available in two or more different locations
- Process integration: improve the process of obtaining and scanning the physician
order, scheduling the patient’s appointment, and communicating with the patient
- Provision of one fax number to physician offices: the incoming faxed order is now
being scanned into the enterprise document imaging system to provide access to all
departments who need it; previously, a variety of fax locations caused process
disruption
- Market competitiveness: increase web presence of patient informative documentation
regarding radiological exams, and self-scheduling capability
- Increase departmental direct use of the scheduling system and interaction with the
central outpatient scheduling unit
Working with the customer and Siemens, VCS helped to manage the implementation process.
This involved regular meetings of a core group representing major departments at the medical
center who perform patient scheduling, important service providing departments such as
Radiology, and Siemens implementation staff. The process also employed the VCS Project
Management Office (PMO) Jump Start software, which provides project management methodology,
expert advice, and project website capability on the customer’s intranet. The PMO Jump
Start is based on Microsoft Sharepoint tools, and is in line with the growing trend towards
the use of collaborative software.
A parallel effort involved increasing the use of the medical center’s public web site, to
help patients better understand the nature of services provided, and what they can expect on
the day of their test(s). This process also includes the creation of a self-scheduling web
portal, to allow physician offices or patients to directly schedule certain services.
For further information on enterprise patient scheduling and the PMO Jump Start software,
please contact us at (610) 444 1233 or
vcs@getvitalized.com.