Understanding the effects of service redesign on patient-time in an emergency department Online publication date: Wed, 30-Apr-2014
by John Bowers; Gillian Mould
International Journal of Services Technology and Management (IJSTM), Vol. 19, No. 4/5/6, 2013
Abstract: Considerable effort has been expended in improving the health service in the UK through a focus on quantifiable targets. This paper examines the specific experience of the introduction of a new staff rota designed to help reduce the time patients spend in the emergency department at one hospital. A simple comparison of the mean times suggested a significant improvement in the service. However, there had been substantial changes in the environment and an analysis of covariance, incorporating the volume of activity and the doctors' experience, suggested that the new staff rota had differential benefits for different categories of patients: some had a reduction of 16 minutes in their mean time though others were unaffected. This example illustrates the challenges of measuring the impact of service redesign in healthcare even when a well defined innovation is considered and the impact is restricted to a readily quantified measure.
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