Smash the Bottleneck: Fixing Patient Flow for Better Care (and a Better Bottom Line)
Christopher Strear, MD Danilo Sirias
ISBN: 978-1-64055-150-3
Softbound,
180pp,
2020
Order Code: 2407I
ACHE Management
- Member Price: $37.80
- Non Member Price: $54.00
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Book Description
Smash the Bottleneck: Fixing Patient Flow for Better Care (and a Better Bottom Line) lays out a concrete methodology for getting to the root of patient-flow problems and addressing them—quickly. The book highlights a continuous improvement methodology known as the Theory of Constraints (TOC), which emphasizes identifying, optimizing, and breaking down bottlenecks to improve overall system performance. Introduced in Eliyahu M. Goldratt’s seminal business book The Goal, this method and its concepts have since been adopted by Fortune 500 companies worldwide.
Uniquely, the authors tie TOC to healthcare delivery from a practitioner’s point of view. They provide numerous examples of common health system bottlenecks to illustrate how the methodology can be applied in readers’ own organizations. The book also showcases precisely how TOC can help to do the following:
- Decrease length of stay in inpatient units
- Coordinate resources and break down organizational silos
- Reduce overcrowding and increase throughput in emergency departments
- Shorten wait times in primary and specialty care clinics, imaging centers, and surgery centers
What Readers Are Saying
“Finally—a book that translates the business classic The Goal and its powerful Theory of Constraints into the healthcare setting. Foundational to the science of flow, this is a must-read for anyone engaged in healthcare operations, improvement, and flow. It is impossible to read this book and not have a eureka moment.”
– Robert Vissers, MD, FACEP, MBA President and CEO, Boulder Community Health Adjoint Professor of Emergency Medicine, Faculty Executive Healthcare MBA, University of Colorado, Denver
“Strear and Sirias address the key issue in healthcare operations today—how to break down capacity constraints and realize patient throughput. Full of ready-to implement examples, their practical application of constraint theory in healthcare will give every hospital director hope that bottlenecks can be smashed and flow restored.”
– S. Renee Edwards, MD, MBA Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, OHSU Health
