at the VA

Hi All,

Hope you're doing well! Happy to say that this summer has been pretty laid back with plenty of exploration.

When I first got to work, I was encouraged to visit/shadow all the departments in the hospital that I'm interested in. So, I've spent a day with an outreach team in their mobile health care van, gotten a tour of the pharmacy department and their pill-dispensing robots,etc, and talked to a lot of interesting people in general. I also got to participate in a three-day LEAN process improvement workshop.

I'm applying what I learned about LEAN to a project to improve the Occupational Therapy department's workspace. The OT department has stockpiled equipment (like raised toilet seats and scooters) in their workspace because they cannot depend on the Prosthetics department reliably delivering the equipment they need for patients. The result - the patient gym doubles as a warehouse - not ideal. So I'm teaming up with the OTs and the prosthetics department to improve the way equipment is requested and stored.

I'm also working on a project to rewrite the hospital's inter-facility transfer policy. Moving a patient from one hospital to another (for a needed procedure, or even just because of space issues) involves so many people and departments that it's just been a nice excuse for me to go out and meet people (and learn the lingo they use!)

Well, I'm looking forward to catching up with you all in person, enjoy your weekend,
Santhi