A1 Strategies for reducing waste, increasing efficiency, and improving patient safety

A1 Strategies for reducing waste, increasing efficiency, and improving patient safety

Format: Talk with questions and answers

Opportunities abound for reducing waste in organised care delivery settings. These include effective supply chain management, inventory control, care process redesign, effective technology assessment, and payment system simplification, among others. Most of these improvements have clear translations into improved patient safety as well.

After this session you will be able to:

• Describe the main opportunities for healthcare waste reduction in organised health care
• Discuss the behavioural and administrative complexity of a pluralistic health care delivery system
• Identify the principal tools and techniques for reducing waste, increasing efficiency, and improving safety in health care
• Provide a specific example of how care process redesign can both reduce waste and improve safety

Dennis S O’Leary, MD, President Emeritus, the Joint Commission, USA