Quinte Mri Case Study

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With an appointment system set in place to inform the receptionists and technicians of cancellations for the day, it will allow for more “walk-ins” and better times. With having a weekly appointment book with only eight slots available for patients per day restricts more patients being seen as previously stated by Dr. Haider. If two patients are to be seen an hour and the data performance sheet shows how many patients are actually seen and for how long, it proves that there is a problem in both scheduling and patient intake.

Recommendations

It is my recommendation that Quinte MRI and BCMC create a new appointment system in which patients have more access to. They should also consider hiring another MRI technician to allow for more patients seen daily. There should be an implemented appointment system that establishes an improved patient dependability, which is capable of penalizing customers for missing appointments; ie: charging them $50.00 for a missed appointment with a credit card that they will have to have on file upon booking the appointment. This way the patients will be more consistent about showing up on time or calling at a minimum of 48 hours beforehand to reschedule their appointment.

If they were to hire another MRI tech, this person would be able to assist Mr. Sinclair or even run their own log of patients in order to be able to bring in more patients throughout the day. This would greatly increase the revenue, and the amount they are paying in overtime for their current staff would decrease. The new revenue they would be bringing in would well cover the cost of bringing in the new MRI tech, along with their benefit coverage.

We have seen an increase in the number of scans done per year from 1998 to 2001, and from this there is a definite need for and MRI machine at a community hospital. Although Mr. Sinclair is the sole MRI technician for the clinic, he could use some assistance. Paying two MR technicians would cause operating costs to increase $60,000 per year, it would keep up with the increasing demand for MRI’s per week from the Quinte MRI group.

Implementation

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MRI Technologist

MRI Briefing

1 minute

Positioning of the coils

4 minutes

Tunnel

16.5 minutes

Printing

6 minutes

Total

27.5 minutes

MRI Assistant

Initial health checkup

5 minutes

Change of clothing

8 minutes

Escort back

2 minutes

Total

15 minutes

Arrival Time

Departure

Patient 1

7:45

8:30

Patient 2

7:45

9:00

Patient 3

8:15

9:30

Patient 4

8:45

10:00

Patient 5

9:15

10:30

Patient 6

9:45

11:00

Patient 7

10:15

11:30

Patient 8

10:45

12:00

Patient 9

11:15

1:30

Patient 10

1:15

2:00

Patient 11

1:45

2:30

Patient 12

2:15

3:00

Patient 13

2:45

3:30

Patient 14

3:15

4:00

Patient 15

3:45

4:30

Throughput time for customer final

75 minutes

Capacity utilization of machine initial

50 % or less

Capacity utilization of machine after

100 %

Idle time for machine initial (in min)

38.5

Idle time for machine final (in min)

8.5

Decrease in idle time in %

%77.92

If we look at the charts above, we can see that there is a significant cost advantage which will be able to offset the extra costs of hiring a new MRI technician. The MRI will be able to deliver 2 scans per hour, which compared to the 1 scan per hour previously, will create much more utilization of the machine. There