Improving rapid response operations in acute care delivery - part II: Continuous improvement and case study

Improving the efficacy of rapid response operations in acute care delivery is of critical importance to improve patient safety and care quality. In this paper, continuous improvement methods have been developed to identify the bottleneck responses in rapid response operations. Specifically, the bottleneck response for decision time (BN-τ) and its variability (BN-cv), and response-time performance bottleneck (BN-rtp) have been introduced, and bottleneck indicators based on the data collected on the hospital floor have been developed. To illustrate the applicability of the method, a case study at University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital is presented.