Outpatient Testing Challenge: There was an unacceptable level of no-shows and last minute cancellations of outpatient tests, leading to wasted materials, unutilized test capacity and overtime. There was also a belief that there was a high level of payment denials because pre-cert procedures were not being followed. Reduce the number of no-shows and last minute cancellations, and ensure that provider pre-cert requirements are fulfilled. ASI Solution: Telephone surveys of patients revealed that a large number of patients who missed appointments often forgot them, or were unclear about the location of the test. Some patients arrived improperly prepared because they had forgotten the preparation requirements. It was discovered that while overall payment denials for the hospital were [...]

Operating Room Scheduling Challenge: Operating room schedules were nearly full despite the fact that there were many unutilized hours. Some surgeons were not moving patients to the hospital because they could not obtain time in the schedule. Plans were being made to add another endoscopy room at a cost of $300,000. Increase the amount of time the operating rooms are used for procedures. If possible, eliminate the need to build an additional endoscopy room ASI Solution: Analysis of the scheduled and used hours revealed that many prime hours were allocated to specific surgeons in blocks without regard to the procedure load. Unused block time could be assigned to other surgeons, but typically too late to be [...]

Medical Instrumentation Challenge: A large, successful American medical instrumentation company was experiencing increasing difficulty competing with Japanese and German offerings. The company enjoyed a proprietary technology. However, the competitors were gaining market share with lower cost, more reliable products. ASI Solution: The company engaged ASI Consulting Group to help improve their Product Development Process. Enhancements to the Product Development Process included intense interactions between engineers and customers, Quality Function Deployment, Pugh Concept Generation and Selection, and a disciplined Verification and Validation Process which met FDA requirements. Verification and Validation are associated with Prototype and Pilot Fix Cycles respectively. Earlier development programs needed several Prototype Cycles to achieve performance goals and meet FDA regulatory requirements. The new [...]