Cutting interruptions in a hospital microbiology lab
Observation study and costed business case at Herlev Hospital
/images/herlev-microbiology/lab.webp
Microbiology department storage room with a row of sample fridges and shelving
- Client
- Clinical Microbiology Department, Herlev Hospital
- Year
- 2022
- Role
- Observation study and business case
- Team size
- 6
- Tools
- Observation study · Staff interviews · Time measurement · Business case · Vendor benchmarking
- Contribution
- Team of 6, observation study, time measurements and the costed case
An observation study of how samples move between the PCR lab and zone 3 at Herlev Hospital, and a costed business case for the part that was broken, amounting to 98.8 staff hours saved annually against a system quoted at 4,874 DKK.
What we found
Zone 3 receives around 15 phone calls a day, and 13 of them exist only in order to say that samples have arrived. Each one costs the PCR analyst 40–50 seconds in picking up the phone and finding the contact, followed by a 15–20 second conversation, and it costs the zone 3 analyst whatever they were holding, since several times an hour they have to put down work mid-task in order to answer. This means that the communication method was not conveying information anyone needed, and instead it was announcing a delivery.
The solution
A button on the shelf where the samples are placed, which PCR staff press on arrival, and a pager worn on the zone 3 analyst's coat then lights and beeps once a minute until the samples are collected and the analyst clears it themselves. Here the staff specified that behaviour directly, since they wanted something persistent but not escalating, and dismissed by the person rather than by the system.
The case
11.25 minutes saved per day in PCR and around 5 minutes in zone 3, which comes to 68.4 and 30.4 hours a year respectively, and 98.8 hours annually in total. The system was quoted at 4,874 DKK by Holtech Solutions, and this was benchmarked against JTECH, Discover Systems and an mGuide intercom set at 1,136 DKK. Furthermore the implementation required no unusual adaptation from the staff, which matters in a department where the working routine is already tight.
A second finding
Sample reception had a separate problem, since the unpacking table was routinely occupied by boxes, racks that the sorter cannot take, and handwritten notes for the doctor, which made it hard both to unpack and for the doctor to find their messages. Furthermore there was uncertainty about waste sorting which produced consistent errors, and this was carried as a secondary recommendation.
/images/herlev-microbiology/pager-button.webp
A push-button device mounted on the edge of a lab shelf, next to a rack of sample tubes
/images/herlev-microbiology/pager-stock.webp
Stock photo of a clinician in a lab coat wearing a pager clipped to her pocket, holding a tablet