LEAN healthcare identifying easy target to improving referral management efficiency at a midsized urban hospital: Digital blindness

Introduction/Objectives: Systemic operational inefficiencies in health systems can threaten patient care; therefore, health systems are motivated to identify common barriers that are quick to resolve. In a study focused on reducing referral processing wait times, common systemic barriers to efficient referral, prior authorization (PA) management and scheduling were revealed. Their magnitude of burden to overall process efficiency was measured and compared. Of particular interest was measuring the burden from digital blindness (DB), a condition describing when frontline workers are blind to information needed to coordinate patient care optimally because the information is not visible on their software systems or access approved user interface.