Tim O’Hanlon

Managing Principal, Praestare Limited, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Tim, who is based in the UK and the Managing Principal of Praestare Limited – an international consultancy and training firm that partners with Ascend healthcare Solutions (GE distributor) in the Middle East - worked in the manufacturing sector for 10 years before becoming a management consultant in 1988. Tim has worked in 52 countries and was based in Dubai for three years. In 2008, Tim began working in healthcare and has won multiple awards with the Management Consultancies Association both individually (Change management) and for the projects he has led (International project of the year). With his colleagues, Tim has achieved 2 Highly Commended awards and been a finalist in the Quality professional of the year category with the International Quality Awards hosted by the Chartered Quality Institute. Working extensively with quality tools and techniques and integrating these with the tools of lean and six sigma, Tim became a Master Black belt more than decade ago. He was also a Lead Auditor for a UK registrar, an IRCA Lead Auditor trainer and a Reviewing Officer for IRCA. Tim has presented at the ISO and LSS conferences on multiple occasions, twice winning the best speaker award. He is an Executive Lecturer for the Frankfurt Business School Health MBA program on leadership and culture change and has authored several books and multiple papers on ISO 9001, quality and change management.

Do It, Make It Happen: Act Quickly, Implement Best Practices, Continue Doing It

This paper describes how the tools and techniques of LSS were used to radically transform healthcare delivery in a patient pathway in the UK. The problem was defined as “The male, prostate cancer patient journey exceeds the specified target times at every step in that journey, causing a poor patient experience, stress for staff and a potential compromise to the clinical outcomes”. The value-add was 0.18% of the total cycle time. Extensive data analysis indicated that 4 Rapid Improvement Events were required to remove the waste in the process, particularly delays. Cooperation along the entire patient journey was improved as were communications and reductions in avoidable follow-up outpatient appointments (some of which had lasted only 90 seconds after the patients had travelled and waited for more than 3 hours). Controlling mechanisms retained the improvements e.g., Achievement of 25-week reduction in pathway down to 15 weeks; Additional 1,100 outpatient appointments per annum; 25% increase in OR storage space; standardization of procedures for bills of materials, outpatient planning and referrals; Reduction of cancellations on day; On time start for OR for 20 consecutive days during trial; Zero cancellations on day due to emergencies; Implementation of best practice documents. The use of the DMAIC approach delivered tangible and sustainable results within 12 weeks.