Critical Access Hospitals (CAH's) are small hospitals (25 beds or fewer), which meet specific criteria developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. They are often located in rural communities, which have a disproportionately high number of uninsured, underinsured and Medicare patients. As such, CAH's face significant challenges in meeting the growing demands of the current healthcare climate with limited resources. One such facility located in Baker, Montana had recently relocated the supplies inventory within the hospital and faced the problem of a time and cost efficient organization of the department. As part of a two-week rapid improvement event, the storage design was analyzed, and a visual representation created which depicted graphically the current travel, pick locations, and resulting wastes. The visualizations helped garner consensus as to the main areas of inefficiency, and helped determine alternatives in how to reorganize the department. The agreed upon design grouped items by hospital department and brought high frequency picked items to the front of the storage area, located in easy-to-reach shelf locations, with a designated and labeled location for each item. The implemented reorganization resulted in approximately 50% travel distance and 70% search time savings.
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