Decreasing Hospital Length of Stay by Streamlining Ordering Process for Home Negative Pressure Wound Therapy

Background:

The current process for ordering Negative Pressure Wound Therapy systems (NPWT) for discharge home was complex and confusing. It frequently resulted in delays in discharge and patient and staff dissatisfaction. The process for procurement of home NPWT required input from multiple disciplines, including social services, care coordination, Wound Care Nursing, and physicians, with no defined ownership of the process. The logistics were such that the needed equipment was not available without involving the on-call Wound Care team, resulting in overtime pay and time delays.

Method:

A multidisciplinary Task Force was created. The team developed a process map outlining the current state and future state for ordering NPWT. A SIPOC diagram was used to identify key suppliers, inputs, outputs, customers and process boundaries. A cause and effect diagram helped the team identify and rank the top five areas of concern. This collaborative effort between Care Coordination, Medical Social Worker, Wound Care Department and Materials Management helped define roles and ownership of each step of the process improvement. The Wound Care Department abdicated responsibility of delivering and setting up all discharge patients with NPWT and focused on teaching nursing staff house wide in the application and patient education of the NPWT systems. 

Results:

The desired outcome was to reduce the average length of stay of Wound Therapy Days to the National Average, which was achieved.