Streamlining Scheduling at a Major Hospital
Client Profile
Ridgeview Medical Center is an independent acute-care hospital and the center of a regional network which includes neighborhood clinics, emergency facilities, and specialty programs and services.
Since 1963, Ridgeview has delivered on its promise to provide the best-possible healthcare services to those who call the southwest suburbs of Minneapolis-St. Paul home.
The Situation
Ridgeview Medical Center provides its patients with quality medical care and reliable information. They knew a more streamlined and efficient reservation system could further improve their services.
An examination by Ridgeview’s staff revealed the challenges facing its scheduling process:
- All rooms and equipment had to be booked through the Marketing Education Manager, Pam Elling, keeping her tied to the phone at all times.
- Scheduling for the entire hospital was done with by hand, requiring each room’s reservations to be cataloged on a separate piece of paper. This process was tedious and inflexible.
- Ridgeview briefly tried to use Outlook for scheduling needs, but it was too time consuming and didn’t provide the needed efficiency.
The Solution
Ridgeview Medical Center purchased Meeting Room Manager (MRM) in March of 2004. Approximately 50 employees now use the software on a daily basis to schedule twelve rooms and six pieces of equipment in their facility. Plans are to upgrade to the 2004 system shortly.
Results
Meeting Room Manager has helped Ridgeview Medical Center to provide its patients with an even more efficient facility:
- Users are now free to make their necessary reservations individually without going through an intermediary.
- The tedious and time consuming aspect of pen and paper scheduling has been eliminated, allowing Pam Elling to focus on more pressing issues.
- Rooms and equipment are now booked through a single process across the entire hospital, eliminating scheduling errors and reducing complexity.