Citation

Sorita A, Raslau D, Murad MH, Steffen MW. J. Occup. Environ. Med. 2015; 57(4): 453-458.

Affiliation

From the Division of Preventive, Occupational, and Aerospace Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/JOM.0000000000000394

PMID

25658918

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:: To describe a successful, resident-led quality improvement (QI) project that improved the efficiency of the Department of Transportation (DOT) medical examination process.

METHODS:: After learning QI principles through didactics, workshops, and online modules, residents led a QI project to streamline the process of the DOT examination. An interdisciplinary group of key stakeholders collaborated to analyze the process and to design and implement interventions.

RESULTS:: Following the Model for Improvement and Lean concepts, residents ran seven Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles over a 4-month period with multiple iteration and testing changes. Compared with the baseline, the team successfully reduced the total visit time (from check-in to check-out) by 28 minutes (102 minutes vs. 130 minutes; P < 0.001). The accuracy of certificate issuance, as proxy for quality of the examinations, improved after the interventions.

CONCLUSIONS:: Residents successfully improved the efficiency of the DOT examination process.

Language: en