About The Course

Learn the concepts and benefits rapid changeover for improving value-added utilization of key resources.

Rapid changeover is one of the most important tools to master for emergency medicine and healthcare. The concept of changeover affects everything we do in the ED. Examples of change over include, but are not limited to, room change over from one patient’s departure to the arrival of the next; the need to do a procedure until it is done; the time the CT scanner stops on one patient to the time the CT scanner starts on the next patient. These are all situations where understanding the concept of rapid changeover and how to approach changeover will literally transform your workplace.

What exactly is changeover? Changeover is the amount time taken to change a service line from the last step of one process to the first step of the next process sequence. This is typically referenced in terms of the revenue-generating entity, which in healthcare is usually, but not always, the physician. A good analogy in the airline industry is Southwest Airlines. Southwest Airlines claims the following, “We’re not making any money as long as the plane’s on the ground.” So, in the case of the airline industry, it’s the plane. In the case of the ER, it’s clearly the physician.

The following are the 5 steps to improving changeover:

1. Identify all of the Steps in the process
2. Classify steps as internal or external
3. Eliminate any activities that do not appear to be necessary or add value
4. Convert any of the remaining activities from internal to external when possible
5. Appropriately staff, choreograph, and practice the remaining activities

Your Instructor