1. Analysis of Front Desk Processes at the Vanderbilt Cancer Center
Rasheeda Stephens
Advisor: Doris Quinn, Ph.D.
March 23, 2001
BME Senior Design Project

2. Vanderbilt Cancer Center
Serves on average 255 patients/day in middle TN.
Provides cancer treatment in the following areas:gynecology, medical oncology, surgical oncology, thoracic oncology.
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3. Main Objective
To improve front desk processes, such as check-in, check-out, and appointment scheduling, so patients are seen at their appointment time.
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4. Problems Reasons for Long Patient Waiting Time:
Paperwork Processing and Insurance verification are time consuming.
The method of Appointment Scheduling can not manage delays.
Patients do not arrive early ( 1 hour) for laboratory work.
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5. Significance This system improvement analysis could:
Improve patient access to the Vanderbilt Cancer Center.
Improve overall satisfaction of ailing cancer patients.
Optimize health care delivery of the Vanderbilt Cancer Center.
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6. Tasks Observe Patient Flow and Personnel.
Generate Flow-charts of Front Desk Procedures.
Perform Timed Study on length of Patient Waiting Time.
Survey Patients to discuss their perspectives of the entry processes.
Perform Telephone management study to observe the distraction of telephone usage with personnel duties.
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7. Check-In Process
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8. Check-In Process
10-30 min.
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9. Solutions The delays in the Patient Check-In process were extracted.
A new process has been implemented to limit insurance verification time and patient form preparation.
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10. Patient Access and Capacity
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11. Work in Progress Current Work:
Gathering data from Telephone management study of front desk and clerical personnel’s daily usage.
Future Work:
Perform timed study on length of time from check-in to patient entry into exam room.
Conduct patient survey for patient perspective of waiting time.
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BME 273

12. Acknowledgements Dr. Doris Quinn Wendy Leutgens Dr. Paul King
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