Methodology

The MS² Hospital Operations Transformation Methodology has been tested and purposefully designed to enable rapid change cycles of innovation, process redesign and unprecedented levels of workflow optimization regardless of hospital setting or size. We help your staff break down departmental silos, create cross-functional accountabilities and obtain stakeholder buy-in for organizational-wide changes promptly and efficiently.

Rationale for our methods...

Hospitals are highly functional in their operations. Namely, they organize knowledge, assets and resources into discrete units reporting hierarchically up the chain of command. Each department thus operates within its own silo, allocated budget and vertical reporting mechanism. Since most of the processes and resources required to manage patient flow run horizontally across many departments and units. This separation usually…

Prevents process integration across the entire patient care cycle and decreases the accountability of each unit to promote overall patient flow. Because each silo is accountable for individual performance and reports in functional isolation, many procedural gaps in patient flow management might exist but remain unaddressed.

Discourages innovative solutions from being developed at the “grassroots” staff level and prevents staff from experimenting new ways to collaborate across departmental boundaries. Because no “bottom-up” approach to generate solutions or fast decision-making authority to implement them exists, there is no forum for the staff to advance internal ideas or test solutions especially when they cut across functional boundaries.

Allows many “Sacred Cows” to be protected and institutionalized. Because shared accountability for overall performance is limited or unenforceable, each Department or Unit can shield clearly detrimental individuals, legacy systems, behaviors and internal procedures from ever being challenged or objectively scrutinized by the organization.

In short, the operational structure of most hospitals limits the ability to integrate the patient care cycle horizontally across all the functional units and departments required to maximize patient flow and allows conceptual, political and cultural barriers to prevent even well supported internal change initiatives from reaching their true potential.

Why does the MS² methodology work?

Our hospital specific change management methodology is designed to markedly flatten the hospital decision-making process and systematically eliminate institutional barriers to change. This is done to provide your hospital resources the ability to innovate, test and execute procedural solutions within a relatively short time frame. Our methods help...

Bring to surface the full extent and consequences of current operational problems including the way in which barriers to change impact the institution from a financial, operational and competitive standpoint. This helps create a higher level of urgency throughout the institution and starts preempting some of the initial resistance.

Involve operational staff from all stakeholder departments and units to engage in the diagnosis of the true nature and consequences of their problems and develop the parameters of the solutions that will best solve them. This empowers the staff to develop a collaborative discovery and resolution process that promotes sharing of ideas, facilitates buy-in, and provides them the ability to work cross-functionally.

Eliminate all managerial layers and bureaucratic approval processes that prevent rapid changes and discourage internal process innovation while still providing the necessary oversight to prevent “rogue” actions. Under our managerial model, action items developed at the staff level will be reviewed, and either approved or disavowed, at the administrative level in almost “real-time”. Once approved implementation is immediate.

Provide the parameters within which solutions must be developed. The changes must preferentially be “budget-neutral” and involve no major increase in physical capacity or staff. They must also be quick to implement, provide significant leaps in performance and have readily measurable effects. This forces team members to find new and radically different ways to work and collaborate across former boundaries.

In summary, our methods eliminate the strong silos, incomplete accountabilities and vertical reporting mechanisms that often separate hospital departments and units. It forces new information flows and working relationships to be forged by letting people who normally don’t have close contact with each other exchange views, share information and approach patient flow processes as an integrated whole. Finally, it helps hospitals achieve transparency and simultaneous action at both, administrative and operational staff levels.

Can you describe some of the main things you will help my resources do?

We start by helping your resources analyze what drives their critical patient flow metrics and understand the sequence of the processes and events currently in place. We then help decompose these processes into smaller activities to look for causes of errors, non-value added activity, redundancy, queuing, and other factors that may impact efficiency. Once all detrimental factors are identified, we help eliminate them and create all the new interfaces needed to develop a patient flow management system free of those limitations.

What does the engagement entails?

MS² successfully delivers robust solutions to our clients through a 7-step methodology that combines extensive experience, customer-centric processes, best practices and technical expertise.

Due Diligence Discovery Phase
Our team spends approximately four weeks identifying current capabilities and infrastructures to prepare for requirements definition. At the end of discovery, a project management and cross-functional ED Task Force and Inpatient Subcommittee schedules will be developed and made available to the client.

Requirements Definition Phase
After thorough discovery and analysis of industry position, opportunities and resources, MS² will customize a strategy focused solution to meet the client’s business objectives. Based on a detailed assessment of the client’s unique business and system requirements, risks and critical success factors (CSF), MS² will formulate a comprehensive solution architecture and design. Each unique MS² solution is developed through an iterative process that minimizes client’s identified risks and maximizes the efficiency of the solution design.

Training & Education Phase
MS² conducts thorough testing throughout the project life-cycle based on client-specific scenarios that ensure the delivery of strategies, resulting in a functional and effective MS² solution. MS² assists in the development and delivery of education / training to affected hospital staff members.

Implementation Phase
MS² will assist with the ongoing communication and change management processes hospital wide. Our team will be on-site to moderate the transition teams required to execute the project management action items and to provide staff education and mentoring in preparation for the pilot program.

Pilot Program Phase
Implementation of the MS² solution is planned, monitored and executed to ensure optimum performance in the client’s existing business environment. Our team will be on-site working right beside your staff for the first two weeks of the pilot program to continue mentoring, support the change management process, establish a fully functional pilot program, monitor performance and effect any necessary adjustments to the system prior to the advent of any marketing initiative.

Marketing Phase (optional)
After the Pilot Phase is completed satisfactorily, we help the client’s PR / Marketing Department develop advertisement and help institute a long-term marketing campaign.

Monitoring & Continuous Quality Improvement Phase
For the duration of the engagement, we conduct on-site visits every month to monitor the program’s performance and act as moderators for a continuous Quality Improvement Team / Operational Review Committee.