Swift and even patient flow at Carlanderska Hospital

Abstract

The main purpose of this project was to be able to provide recommendations for the Carlanderska Hospital on how to achieve swift and even flows for the patient in the department of surgery without expanding their resources. Through observations and analysis of quantitative data extracted from their planning system, Orbit, could a good understanding of the Carlanderska Hospital's current state be established. The recommendations are based on the theory of swift and even flows presented by Schmenner & Swink (1998) which recommends minimizing variation in the process itself, quality, quantity, and demand. The theory also tries to minimize the throughput time by reducing the non-value-adding activities. To achieve swift and even flows, Carlanderska Hospital in Gothenburg needs to aim to reduce and remove barriers and bottlenecks in the patient flow (Fredendall et al., 2009). By making sure that all variations occurring are reported, and working with continuous improvements, variations, barriers and bottlenecks should be reduced, which will enable swift and even flow and further increase the quality of the services provided (Fredandall et al., 2009; Holweg et al., 2018; Sirias & Strear, 2020).