UCSF Center for Healthcare Value - Caring Wisely 2.0

Crowd-sourcing innovative cost savings ideas from the front lines of care delivery systems

ARCHIVED

New posts and comments will not be accepted.

The UCSF Center for Healthcare Value (CHV) called for the best ideas to reduce inefficiencies and health care costs as Phase 1 of the Caring Wisely initiative. The top 10 ideas at each site were selected as "Hot Spots" for Phase 2, which will be a call for proposals from within the UCSF and SFGH communities to address the areas of interest identified from the winning ideas in Phase 1.

Ideas (172 total)

Pages

Employees parking availability

Submitted by Gerald Arriola on January 27, 2014 - 7:02pm Last revised by Web Producer on March 13, 2014 - 12:43pm.
Idea Status: 
Review Complete

 

I believe this is very crucial because this will affect the productivity of the staff. Morning crews are spending more time moving their car. Who knows how many times they step out from the dept. to check their car?

When you look at it in a positive way. This is a win win approach.  Facility will provide parking for the employee. and the greatest impact is the productivity increase.

Utilizing SFGH Advice Line

Submitted by Kimberly Jablon on January 27, 2014 - 6:53pm Last revised by Web Producer on March 13, 2014 - 12:43pm.
Idea Status: 
Review Complete

At SFGH, children come to the ER at night for problems that could certainly wait until the morning when they can come to Urgent Care.  A refrigerator magnet with the number of the advice line to hand out to patients might allow more people to come to urgent care of the ER and reduce costs.

FOOD

Submitted by Robert Tamblin on January 27, 2014 - 6:27pm Last revised by Web Producer on March 13, 2014 - 12:43pm.
Idea Status: 
Review Complete

FOOD, the amount of food I see wasted every shift is tragic.  A patient will have just returned from some kind of procedure (OR for example) have a diet ordered and a tray shows up immediately.  Now this sounds great, but the problem is my patient is barely awake.  So then the tray is wasted.  This at least happens constantly in the neuro ICU.  This system of getting meals is a complete waste.  It is very easy to order a tray in Apex and I feel trays should not be sent unless requested for.  For example, there should be a way to release trays in Apex just like we do for blood transfusion.  

Saving medications

Submitted by Denise Kuri on January 27, 2014 - 6:20pm Last revised by Web Producer on March 13, 2014 - 12:43pm.
Idea Status: 
Review Complete

UCSF's current policy is medication cannot be transferred with patients. Medications, especially insulin pens get wasted which is costly to the patient and the hospital. My proposal is that the transport team can bring a locked box with them with a lock that each floor has a copy of the key that opens the box. The RN on the sending floor places the meds (to be transferred with the patient) in the box and locks it. The box travels with the patient/transport. On the receiving floor the receiving nurse unlocks the box and retrieves the meds and the empty box stays with transport.

Patient Preferred Language Identification

Submitted by Anne Kinderman on January 27, 2014 - 4:31pm Last revised by Web Producer on March 13, 2014 - 12:43pm.
Idea Status: 
Review Complete

Many patients at both UCSF and SFGH (more so at SFGH) have Limited English Proficiency (LEP) and require (professional) interpretation for most healthcare encounters.  Although language preferences are documented by nursing staff when patients are admitted to SFGH, this information is not consistently communicated to staff across hospital settings (for example, if a patient must leave his/her unit for some diagnostic test or procedure).

A JCAHO-like entity to oversee and ensure ethical financial management of UCSF and UC wide

Submitted by Freya Magnusson on January 27, 2014 - 4:29pm Last revised by Web Producer on March 13, 2014 - 12:43pm.
Idea Status: 
Review Complete

Hello.  I'm suggesting that there is a need for a JCAHO-like entity to be created to oversee ethical financial management of UCSF and UC wide institutions.  An independent body made up of people with financial expertise and a proven track record of ethical financial management and high integrity to evaluate, survey, and study the various proposals that UC management 'implements' to the University. 

 

Equipment and Office Supplies Swap

Submitted by Paula Chung on January 27, 2014 - 3:41pm Last revised by Web Producer on March 13, 2014 - 12:43pm.
Idea Status: 
Review Complete

It would be nice if quarterly a location could be chosen on each campus for folks to bring items no longer used and offer and/or swap them with other departments.  Perhaps a Surplus representative could be on hand to take away any pieces left over.  That could also save the Surplus folks from individual trips to pick up items and be a benefit all the way around.

Water Systems Savings

Submitted by Paula Chung on January 27, 2014 - 3:29pm Last revised by Web Producer on March 13, 2014 - 12:43pm.
Idea Status: 
Review Complete

Hello,

 

Any clinics that spend over $40 a month on water bottles with Arrowhead or other companies could get a better price through Macke Water.  Their monthly rental is $34.95 with no bottles to store and change out.  Installation is $75 to hook the water system to a water source.

 

This could potentially save a lot of money PLUS decrease the chances of employees hurting themselves changing out the bottles.

Create a culture of conservation in UCSF Health system

Submitted by Jennifer Della-Santina on January 27, 2014 - 11:18am Last revised by Web Producer on March 13, 2014 - 12:43pm.
Idea Status: 
Review Complete

Create an environment where conservation is part of every units culture, in regards to; electicity and costly medical supplies.

-Often lights are left on in infrequently used rooms i.e. staff bathroom, linen room, and room where we store belongings/walkers-turn off lights when exiting, investigate use of motion sensing switches in infrequently used rooms.

-Investigate alternatives to costly medical supplies-i.e. use of clean cotton ball vs sterile 2x2 gauze after fsbg

Time-Out Telemetry

Submitted by Laura Cantino on January 27, 2014 - 11:08am Last revised by Web Producer on March 13, 2014 - 12:43pm.
Idea Status: 
Review Complete

At SFGH, telemetry orders automatically time-out after 24-72 hours based on the indication (chosen at the time of ordering). I think a similar system within Apex would help support our recent focus on reducing unnecessary tele use and getting patients off tele an appropriate amount of time before discharge (as is now included in the Discharge Dashboard that medicine residents are receiving).

 

Pages