Testing the Hypothesis Part 1

2. 

The opportunity identified: The Shands ER Room in the main medical plaza cannot process and serve the influx of patients after 12am, causing a potential wait time of over 4 hours and the possibility of symptoms worsening. 

The Who: Shands hospital or any hospital in the US with an intake deficiency 

The What: They cannot efficiently process and see patients after a certain time of the night on the weekdays

The Why: Logistical problems related to staffing or managing facility space 

3. 

Testing the Who: Any business or entity (including the government) that is offering a service to people and must account for facility space (efficiently) and staffing has this need

Testing the What: All patients, excepts for critical condition patients, are included in this logistical challenge. Only the ER mainly has this issue, no other intake service of the hospital or healthcare system has this issue. It is the ER, where a variety of cases are taken in, each requiring (presumably) more immediate assistance 

Testing the Why: The ranges of why for this need include management responsibility, poor facility design for that portion of the hospital, physician incompetency (potentially being unable to process or diagnose the condition in an efficient manner), budgetary restraints that limit the amount of medical professionals (or staff) that can be present during this shift, and the general nature of the ER that is more unchangeable (it just is unpredictable). Shands ER would typically claim that higher influx of patients as unpredictable and the more root cause of the issue

4. 

Interview 1: 

I have had this need when I have gone into the Shands ER during the hours of 11p-4a. I also experience this need when I go to popular restaurant on the weekends in the evening. I could tell that the physicians experience business during this time as well, but also assume they are probably less likely to want to work during this later hours. 

Interview 2:

I have had this need when I go into the Shands ER on anytime in the evening. It has not been as long as 4 hours though. It seems like they are just understaffed compared to the amount of people that come in.

Interview 3: 

I have this need always in the ER, but hardly ever in walk-in clinics or urgent cares. I believe that is because the amount and the type of patients that come in are wildly different than the ER. Secondly, I've experienced these type of wait-times with other government provided services, like the DMV or Department of Health. It makes me wonder if these deficiencies are connected to the fact that they are public. If they are public, they tend to have less incentive to provide a good and efficient service. Shands ER has a great medical staff, but do they have the right managers in place to manage the operational decision-paths that these staff work within? 

Interview 4: 

I have never been to the Shands ER, but I have been to several others. Usually the ER's, if going it at this late of time, have similar deficiencies and a wait-time that is above average. I believe it is because of the lack of staff during this time - there are less people scheduled, since less people want to work at that time. 

Interview 5: 

With my experience with the Shands ER, the staff were not very responsive or hospitable in updating the patient on their wait-time or acknowledging that they may have been waiting for a while. It is possible therefore, that Doctors and those who manage the assignments of beds, are not being hurried or reminded when it comes to the growing wait-line. This would be a training or leadership change, not so much a change in logistics or facility management. 

Reflection: I realize that this opportunity is not as flexible as I once thought. It requires a deeper dive into the logistics of hospital management processes. This may require just a simple change in staffing, or alteration in training, and a program that manages the assignments of beds automatically. Although it creates an opportunity for a device given to physicians to alert them of the status of their patients and give them insight to the overall status of patient-care/wait-time experienced in their unit.