Division of Chest Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung 407, Taiwan.
Department of Medical Laboratory Science and Biotechnology, Central Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taichung 406, Taiwan.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Sep 6;18(17):9386. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18179386.
The waiting time (WT) for a phlebotomy is directly related to patient satisfaction with a health service. However, the processing time varies widely depending on the type of patients. Monitoring of the WT alone may not enable an effective evaluation of the lean performance of the medical staff for patients with different characteristics. The objective of this study was to use process cycle efficiency (PCE) to assess the performance of an intelligent tube preparation system (ITPS) which automatically labeled test tubes and conducted patient rerouting for phlebotomy services, and to interpret the WT during peak hours.
Three time periods were used. The baseline period was from 1 July to 31 July 2014. Phase 1 was after the establishment of the ITPS, with patients ≥80 years old being rerouted. In phase 2, patients ≥78 years old were rerouted. Those data were recorded with a calling system and ITPS, respectively.
PCE was significantly improved from 12.9% at baseline to 51.1% ( < 0.001) in phase 1 and 53.0% ( < 0.001) in phase 2. The WT of 16.9 min at baseline was reduced to 3.8 min in phase 1 ( < 0.001), and 3.6 min in phase 2 ( < 0.001). Moreover, the results showed that a WT < 10 min was consistent with a PCE ≥ 25%.
Establishing an ITPS for phlebotomy can significantly increase PCE and shorten the WT. Furthermore, the PCE ≥ 25% could be a good assessment reference for the management of appropriate human resources for phlebotomy services, although it is a complex parameter.
采血的等待时间（WT）与患者对医疗服务的满意度直接相关。然而，处理时间因患者类型的不同而差异很大。仅监测 WT 可能无法有效评估具有不同特征的患者的医护人员的精益绩效。本研究的目的是使用过程周期效率（PCE）评估自动标记采血管并对采血服务进行患者重新路由的智能管准备系统（ITPS）的性能，并解释高峰期的 WT。
使用三个时间段。基线期为 2014 年 7 月 1 日至 7 月 31 日。第 1 阶段是在建立 ITPS 之后，将≥80 岁的患者重新路由。在第 2 阶段，将≥78 岁的患者重新路由。分别使用呼叫系统和 ITPS 记录这些数据。
PCE 从基线时的 12.9%显著提高到第 1 阶段的 51.1%（<0.001）和第 2 阶段的 53.0%（<0.001）。基线时的 WT 为 16.9 分钟，在第 1 阶段减少到 3.8 分钟（<0.001），在第 2 阶段减少到 3.6 分钟（<0.001）。此外，结果表明 WT<10 分钟与 PCE≥25%一致。
建立 ITPS 进行采血可以显著提高 PCE 并缩短 WT。此外，PCE≥25%可能是采血服务管理适当人力资源的良好评估参考，尽管它是一个复杂的参数。
