Rocky Boy Health Center

Decreasing Patient Alone Times

After implementing SyncTimes and analyzing clinic cycle time data, Rocky Boy Health Center realized that 38% of patients were spending 15+ consecutive minutes alone in exam rooms. The clinical team had SyncTimes configure an automated and touchless system that would remind staff to check in with patients who were alone in the room for 15 consecutive minutes. They also initiated an internal competition to improve the patient experience. Three target areas to win the competition included:  

1. Be the first team to achieve 10% of patients experiencing 15-minute alone times.

2. Be the team with the highest improvement rate.

3. Be the team with the fastest average response time when the 15-minute icon appears.

Results

Overall, the Rocky Boy team realized a 21% improvement in the number of patients who were alone for 15 consecutive minutes.

Prior to the competition it took an average of 7.58 minutes for staff to check in with a patient. As a result of the competition, care team response time decreased to 5.53 minutes.

Clinic leadership learned there is opportunity for further improvement by breaking down results by provider team. One provider team was able to reduce the percent of patients that waited for 15 minutes to 12%.

Next Steps

Once the contest concluded, healthcare leadership established a plan to further assess the reasons why some provider teams were more efficient than others and what is slowing other provider teams down. They will also correlate patient satisfaction scores to time spent alone in exam rooms.  

"SyncTimes helps to streamline communication, increases awareness of time patients spend alone and time spent with providers." - Wendy Tilleman, Rocky Boy Provider

"It's good to know where the patient and employee is and how long each component of the patient visit takes." - Rocky Boy Care Team Member