Customer background:

• Sana Klinikum Hof belongs to a large private hospital chain in Germany
• 473 beds
• 20,000 in-patients and 25,000 out-patients treated every year
• Radiology services include X-Ray, CT, Mammography and Angiography
• 41,000 procedures performed every year among which 5,500 CT scans

Initial customer situation:

• The hospital has been privatised in the beginning of 2005 after a period of changing management and uncertain future
• Due to this situation, decisions to invest in radiology equipment had been delayed and the management wanted to know what changes and improvements needed to be done to ensure an efficient diagnostic support

What we offered: imaging roadmap

• Provide a clear plan for change and optimisation of the Radiology Department based on performance analysis in 4 areas: 1) Market growth, 2) Access to service, 3) Capacity and throughput, 4) Technology

Project objectives:

• Deliver a detailed basis for further decisions concerning structures, processes and investment in the Radiology Department
• Provide recommendations on the investment in the “right” CT multi-slice technology based on the current Radiology Department’s performance and the future trends in medicine and CT technology
• Find information on a possible influence of an out-patient centre lately founded by the hospital

What we found:

• Several areas to be tackled in the near future
• Access to service: patient waiting time and report turnaround time need to be reduced
• Capacity and throughput: if the amount of procedures increase in the near future, CT and X-Ray exams cycle time will need to be reduced
• 17% of exams are performed in the stand-by times (week end, after 18:30)
• Technology: more than 80% of the equipment is older than 10 years, some of them EoL

Solutions proposed:

The management received several recommendations in each of the 4 areas:

• Specialisation in Cardiology (Cardio and Coronar-Angio Cts) and virtual colonoscopies
• Specialisation in Cardiology presumed the hospital should invest in a high-end CT technology
• Increase the report turnaround time by using a speech recognition system
• Optimise patient transportation processes to improve patient waiting time
• Redesign the waiting zone for the patient to improve patient satisfaction and safety
• Develop a decision support system for emergency exams to reduce the number of emergencies and add-on cases for the doctors

Customer benefits:

• 4.1M€ additional revenue by following GE recommendations on technological investment and medical/operational strategies