2021-2022 Project Portfolio

The “Think Twice” projects focus on decreasing unnecessary testing during the post-operative phase of care. Each team developed real time dashboards displaying test ordering metrics so that clinicians can track labs, lab ordering habits, and patient outcomes over time. The next step for these projects is to publish the results and rollout the interventions across the Department of Surgery starting with the Vascular division and Emergency General Surgery.

Think Twice

Projects	Operational Sponsor	Project Goal	Key Accomplishments
Decreasing Chest X-rays After Thoracic Surgery	Dr. Lada Dr. Jones	Decrease average number of chest x-rays by 25% in one year	Created dashboard to track chest x-ray metrics for continued improvement Reduced unnecessary imaging
Reducing Volume of Unnecessary Daily Bloodwork After Elective Colorectal Surgery	Dr. Cannon Dr. Dave	Reduce unnecessary lab draws by 20% Increase lab-free days by 50% Reduce blood draws by 20%	Created dashboard to track lab metrics for continued improvement Reduced unnecessary lab tests, blood draws, and increased lab-free days
Reducing Volume of Unnecessary Daily Bloodwork After Emergency General Surgery	Dr. Nabozny Dr. Dave	Reduce unnecessary lab draws by 20% Reduce blood draws by 20% Increase lab-free days by 50%	Created dashboard to track lab metrics for continued improvement Reduced unnecessary lab tests, blood draws, and increased lab-free days

Decreasing Chest X-rays After Thoracic Surgery: Dr. Lada, Dr. Jones, Dr. Searcy, Dr. Goodman

"The importance of the Value Incubator is rooted in the robust team approach and multi-disciplinary collaboration to identify clinical areas where value can be optimized while maintaining excellence in quality. The successful implementation of decreased chest x-ray utilization in thoracic surgery patients has been fulfilling and demonstrates that the Value Incubator Think Twice projects can be readily applied more broadly across the institution."

~ Michal Lada, M.D.

Reducing Volume of Unnecessary Daily Bloodwork After Elective Colorectal Surgery: Dr. Cannon and Dr. Dave

"The colorectal surgeons had the opportunity to collaborate closely with residents and allied health providers on a straightforward bedside project where immediate actionable intervention is possible. We teamed up with Quality Institute and Operations Excellence to create an extremely user friendly dashboard, where the impact of our intervention can be monitored in real time. I value the collaboration with other service lines doing similar project and feeling of positive teamsmanship."

~ Lisa Cannon, M.D.

Reducing Volume of Unnecessary Daily Bloodwork After Emergency General Surgery: Dr. Nabozny and Dr. Dave

"The Value Incubator’s main priority is the patient; we strive to reduce the cost of care while simultaneously improving the quality of care received. The Reducing Volume of Unnecessary Daily Bloodwork project minimized patient discomfort during blood draws and reduced overnight awaking due to elimination of unnecessary labs. We were able to decrease our hospital expanses along with the cognitive burden on clinicians needing to follow up on normal or insignificantly abnormal results. Today our simple yet effective intervention is being disseminated across the Department of Surgery."

~ Michael Nabozny, M.D.

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