Rapid DPI (Dramatic Performance Improvement)

Implement radical change and move your organization closer to a Patient Centered Medical (Health) Home within four days? Absolutely! Our Rapid DPI interventions are brief and intense. Over the course of four days, a Coleman Associates training team of three to five associates works shoulder-to-shoulder with your staff, at your own site, radically redesigning work processes while you continue seeing patients. Staff is coached aggressively during the on-site week and then over an eight-week period as they are inspired to work in new ways to better serve your patients.

Each clinic session – morning and afternoon – is an iterative test of accepted recommendations as the staff implements key new concepts. By the end of Day One, staff are re-energized as they realize dramatically improved outcomes – such as lower cycle times, better teamwork, increased patient access and ending the clinic session on time – are utterly possible. Patients notice too and appreciate the change. During a recent DPI, one patient remarked:

“I loved my visit today – it was so fast! If all my visits were like this, I’d keep all my appointments!”

In a Rapid DPI, we don’t have the luxury of months to change obsolete work processes. Minutes count. Hours are considerable chunks of time. Each clinic session is an opportunity to make radical changes. Each day must be transformative. The Rapid DPI begins with four days on site, followed by two follow-up coaching visits to leverage your momentum and move the site forward. The first follow-up visit (we call this the Mid-Course Visit) brings you two associates for a 1.5 to 2-day site visit around Week 4 of the program. The second visit (the Capstone Visit) is a 1-day visit with one associate that takes place during Week 8 of the program. The best way to remember this is that Rapid DPI gives you 4 associates for 4 days, then 2 associates for 2 days and 1 associate for 1 day.

Here’s what happens when you commit to Rapid DPI:

• Team Prep. Four weeks before coming on site the managers send Coleman Associates a short list of key information (such as a floor plan, staffing lists, etc.), and have an orientation call with the Coleman Associate lead. This allows managers to be introduced to the Rapid DPI Methodology and prepare for the Rapid DPI week. This is not onerous, but sets the gears in motion. The Coleman Team uses this information in their work sessions to prepare for a quick and solid start to the week.
• Day One AM. Coleman Group is on site and meets with managers in the morning to set the final stage and give an overview of the week. Then the Coleman Team goes out on the floor at the start of the clinic session and observes, ask questions, and collects data. Trainers observe staff on the job to understand the current process and build rapport. The trainers meet with the Operational Leaders at the site over a working lunch and make 3-5 complete recommendations for how to move the clinic, in the next session closer to a Patient Centered Medical Home. The Operational team discusses the recommendations and chooses whether or not to accept them (the more recommendations you accept, the more successful you will be). The remainder of the lunch hour is spent planning the implementation that afternoon.
• Day One PM. The Coleman Team returns to the clinic floor, this time with key Operational managers in order to train, coach, and implement the recommendations accepted. The Coleman Team sees the recommendations put in place and continues to work side-by-side with staff. The end of the day huddle is the place to share outcomes, successes, failures (should there be any) and for the Coleman Team to make an additional 3-5 recommendations to be implemented in the next clinic session.
• Day Two through Four. These days carry on just as Day One PM and the recommendations continue to build upon one another strengthening the weaker areas of the clinic. Recommendations may likely include: reducing no-show rates, improving access, decreasing messages (telephone encounters), coordinating and strengthening Patient Care Teams, implementing Patient Care Team huddles, adjusting frayed scheduling templates, improving collections, improving phone answering, or creating a tactical nurse function in the clinic by adding the nurse to the clinical team (and pulling him/her out of the outdated “triage” office).
• Day Four. Trainers are onsite for the morning only. The Coleman Rapid DPI Team monitors progress, aids with final coaching and puts a final Performance Dashboard in place so that management and staff can monitor and see their improvements reflected in the public results each clinic session. Managers have assumed ownership for the redesign. The morning ends with a 1.5 hour Exit Conference with trainers and managers.
• Coaching Program. With such dramatic changes, it’s very unlikely that things will “go back to the old way ” on the following Monday. But to ensure your gains and to continue to move you forward, the Rapid DPI has an eight-week coaching period. The coaching calls start out almost daily during the first week or two and then decrease in frequency.
• Mid-Course Coaching Visit. After four weeks of coaching, two associates come back on site for a two-day follow up. They observe, see the changes in action, and help to fine tune the new system. They make smaller recommendations that smooth any rough edges on the process. Managers and staff find this added accountability gives them an extra push to stay focused on the changes.
• Capstone Visit. At the end of the eight weeks, the coach comes on site for one final look-see. The capstone day is a day or seeing changes, reconciling data with the new patient experience, answering questions, and providing expert guidance as culture of the organization continues its shift.

Most managers tell us that this week on site generally pays for itself in increased revenue, collections and decreased expenses within the on-site week or the following week. One Clinic Manager said at the end of the eight-week Rapid DPI process that “Our work with the Coleman Group was nothing short of revolutionary.”

The Rapid DPI pricing starts at $39,800, and varies according to size and complexity of the site. The cost includes all travel expenses and training materials. Please call 303.499.2058 or email for more information.

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