DIVISION: Addiction Services
“The eval team has done a great deal of work with process improvement, not only to speed up the process but to take a client-centered approach. They have embraced change with open arms and it has led to greater client satisfaction.”
—Amanda Newton, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development
“The Evaluation Team, under the leadership of Taylor Garver, is helping us to individualize and tailor services in the Addictions Division. It’s really been a great deal of effort in a short amount of time, and I’ve enjoyed watching that team grow, change and increase our capacity to provide terrific customer care.”
—Robert Daniels, Director of Clinical Operations, Addiction Services
The Evaluation Team at Centerstone Addiction Recovery Center (ARC) is a main point of entry for services related to the Addictions Division, including inpatient detox, residential and outpatient.
At the beginning of the year, the Evaluation process at ARC was time-consuming, averaging over three hours for an inpatient admission and more than two hours for outpatient. There were a number of inefficiencies that cumulatively resulted in unsatisfactory customer service and trouble converting requests to actual service delivery. In order to meet the growing demand for services that the current substance use crisis in our community has placed on the agency, the team made an investment in Process Improvement. The team applied the principles of Lean Six Sigma to the Addiction Services admissions process to create major improvements and minor adjustments to their system. Lean Six Sigma is a methodology that relies on a collaborative team effort to improve performance by systematically removing waste and reducing variation.
The improvement process included conducting two KAIZEN events. Kaizen, which means continuous improvement, is a strategy where employees at all levels of an organization work together proactively to achieve regular, incremental improvements. The team made renovations to the physical space, archived over ten years of paper records, moved the evaluation department and hired and trained clinicians, business staff and others.
These new efforts ultimately resulted in the reduction of admission times to an average of 90 minutes for inpatient, while the outpatient intake process dropped by an hour! The team was able to make these significant improvements and realize these accomplishments all within a six-month timeframe! These great results were only due to the tireless efforts and tight collaboration of multiple departments and leadership across the Addiction Recovery Center. BRAVO TEAM AWESOME!