In an empty warehouse off Gilchrist Road, doctors, lab workers and other staff from Akron Children’s Hospital are practicing ways to improve the space where they practice medicine.
This week, the pediatric hospital’s central core laboratory and NeuroDevelopmental Science Center are using life-sized walls, tables, computer monitors and other items created from sturdy white cardboard to try out proposed overhauls before they actually take place.
The idea is to try out redesigned spaces before real walls are constructed and knocked down, said Sherry Valentine, a director of development for the hospital’s Center of Operations Excellence.
Valentine has been working with the NeuroDevelopmental Science Center for about a year on plans to renovate the 26,000-square-foot space to accommodate more staff, reduce patients’ wait times and make it more user-friendly.
“It’s pretty unusual in health care to build a whole mock-up like this,” she said.
Sometimes, the teams have found what looks good on paper doesn’t work in real life.
For example, the core lab is being renovated to cut back on the amount of walking required by workers to process blood, urine and other tests. The goal is to reduce the time it takes to get results.
But when lab staff tried out their initial attempts to renovate the department, they discovered the changes left too little space in their work areas.
“It was too close in,” said Dena Nay, a laboratory scientist. “We didn’t have enough room.”
So on Thursday, they were back again to simulate processing tests in the redesigned mock lab.
Mike Antochow, a process improvement analyst for Akron Children’s Hospital who is facilitating the lab renovation project, said the exercise allows the team members who will be doing the work to be involved with designing their workspace.
The projects are being coordinated by the hospital’s Center for Operations Excellence, which is spearheading the hospital’s “Lean Six Sigma” initiative. Lean Six Sigma is a blend of the Lean concept modeled after Toyota’s production system and the Six Sigma process-improvement program implemented by Motorola in the 1980s.
Akron Children’s Hospital adopted the strategy in 2008 and has sent several of its Lean Six Sigma facilitators to Ohio State University to earn master’s degrees in operations excellence.
A major goal of Lean Six Sigma is for businesses to improve the experience of their customers — or, in the case of hospitals, their patients.
Several parents of patients from the NeuroDevelopmental Science Center were invited to walk through the simulated version of the redesigned department on Thursday to share their observations. A few brought their children’s wheelchairs to test whether doors and hallways were easy to navigate.
Jackie Smolinski said she appreciated the chance to have input into the redesign of the NeuroDevelopmental Science Center, where her 4-year-old son, Luke, has multiple appointments each month.
“I think this is great, just the fact that we’re able to come in and see it and give opinions,” she said. “I appreciate the opportunity to discuss and give our opinion before something changes.”
The hospital spent about $12,000 to purchase the heavy-duty white cardboard, which will be reused to provide similar test runs of other renovations planned in the hospital, Valentine said. The warehouse space is being donated by a hospital board member.
It’s easier — and less costly — to find design problems before construction actually begins, according to Valentine.
“If you make a mistake,” she said, “you just put the piece back in and tape it.”
Cheryl Powell can be reached at 330-996-3902 or chpowell@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow Powell on Twitter at twitter.com/abjcherylpowell
