This initiative was chosen to look at the process of how the referrals were distributed among the OBCM staff. After completing the VSM we determined that the real problem with the process was how the referrals were processed before the OBCM actually receive the referral. The project focus was redirected to streamline the handling of the referrals.

This project focused on the time management aspect for how long it took to process the referral from start to finish and how many hands the referral went through before reaching the OBCM.

Need for the QI Initiative

How was the need for the QI Initiative determined?
The team discussed several projects among the QI team and this project was the least clinical focus of those discussed. One of our areas of improvement from our accreditation process was to broaden our QI efforts to nonclinical areas, therefore the team went with this project.

We aim to develop a standardized process for managing and distributing referrals for the OBCM program. This is important to our agency and population served because it will improve over all access to care. This improvement will ensure equitable distribution of referrals among staff which will improve staff efficiency and morale. We intend to have these improvements in place by the end of this QI training process through methods and tools learned from this project.

Goals of Project:

• Streamlined referral process
• Decreased the number of hands involved in processing the referrals
• Decreased the time it takes to process the referrals

Project Dates

Initiative Begin Date: August 5, 2013
Initiative End Date: April 1, 2014

 

Accreditation Status

Are you accredited by the NC Accreditation Program? Yes
Are you PHAB accredited? Yes, NC 2013 & PHAB 2013

• Stronger bond between coworkers
• The OBCMs realized the external relationships among the providers in the community was a valued assest to the program.
• That each staff persons role in the process was valued

Areas for Improvement and Change Ideas Implemented

Improvement 1
Initially we attempted to distribute referrals equally among the care managers. As opposed to distributing referrals according to assigned practices. We learned through our PDSA that this change was not as successful as we had hoped due to the community partners not being as familiar with all care managers verses the individual assigned care manager.

Improvement 2
Our second improvement decreased the number of hands the referrals went through before reaching the care manager. We streamlined the referral process by removing extra hands allowing one person to process the referral from start to finish. This resulted in a reduction in time from 24 hours to less than 10 minutes for the care managers to receive the referral.

Lessons Learned

• We learned that although we have good ideas for change they still need to be tested and reviewed with all parties involved before implementation
• Not discussing modifications with community partners and all frontline staff before changes were made and taking their view into consideration
• The modified process took more time than we had anticipated which affected the date of first contact with the client
• Choose a project with more defined measurable outcomes