D-to-D slashed 85%--in seven weeks!

Who says culture change in the ED has to be slow and painful? The ED at Twin County Regional Hospital in Galax, VA, cut its door-to-doc time from 121 minutes to 19 minutes in just seven weeks as part of a rapid-cycle process improvement effort. Here are some of the keys to success: The waiting room was eliminated. A greeter does a quick registration and gets the patient back to a room almost immediately. Physicians are alerted about the patient even before the patient has arrived in their room. Other hospital departments streamlined their operations as well.