Mary Ware arrives at the Tree of Life Clinic in Tupelo at 6:40
a.m. to ensure she will have a place in line for treatment when the free
medical clinic opens at 4:30 that afternoon. Now, with the
efficiencies instituted in the clinic – thanks to the partnership with
Toyota – she can arrive later with assurance she will be seen that day.
Since January, members of the Toyota Production System Support Center
(TSSC) and Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Mississippi have partnered with
Tree of Life Clinic to provide on-site support – free of charge –
helping to improve the clinic flow while preserving doctor/patient
interaction time. The improvements include increasing the number of
patients seen while reducing waiting time for those patients by an
average of 24 minutes and decreasing the length of the clinic workday
for volunteers by an average of one hour.
Established in 2010, Tree of Life Clinic is a free medical clinic that
provides basic medical and dental care for people in North Mississippi
that is fully staffed by volunteers and 100% funded by donations. Open
two days a month (1st Wednesday and 3rd Saturday), the clinic sees
approximately 80 patients on Wednesdays and 120 on Saturdays for those
who do not have health insurance, cannot afford to pay for medical care
or may not be eligible for Medicare/Medicaid.
“When we opened Tree of Life Clinic we knew there was a need for medical
services for people with no health insurance and not eligible for
Medicare or Medicaid, and we were overwhelmed with patients from the
first day,” said Polly Bailey, clinic manager and co-founder with her
physician-husband Dr. Joe Bailey. “Every person on our staff is a
volunteer. We have always worked hard to ensure that we provide the
best service with the increasing influx of patients. Now we want to take
the concepts Toyota has shown us and incorporate them along with the
philosophy of continuous improvement to provide the best care with the
facilities and volunteer staff we have.”
Toyota, through its nonprofit arm, TSSC, shares its manufacturing
know-how to help nonprofits and small to mid-size manufacturing
companies optimize the way they work by making substantial ‘process
improvements’ by increasing safety, quality, productivity and decreasing
costs. Nearly 200 organizations – including some of North America’s
most successful enterprises – have used TSSC’s support.
Toyota Mississippi President Masafumi Hamaguchi added, “Toyota
Mississippi partnered with TSSC and the Tree of Life Clinic to work on
this project. It is Toyota Mississippi’s honor to help the clinic better
serve their customers. We are happy to donate our time and energy to
this important community project.”
Lisa Richardson, TSSC’s project leader, explained, “Specifically, we
worked on improving the patient and volunteer experience. On one hand
the volunteers (doctors, nurses, pharmacies and support staff) work long
hours and on the other patients are willing to wait for long periods of
time to guarantee that they’re seen by the doctor. So we focused on
several improvements to maximize everyone’s experience,” she added.
Some improvements include:
-
Re-organizing the lobby to maximize patient flow
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Improving the filing system helped reduce check-in process time (30%
of files were purged and a new filing system was introduced);
-
Standardizing the quantity and location of supplies in the pharmacy and exam room.
By implementing these improvements, the Wednesday shift pharmacy staff
has finished as early as 8:30 p.m. where previously volunteers worked
until 9:30 or 10 p.m. And from the moment the patient checks-in until
they leave, the average wait time reduction per patient is 24 minutes.
TSSC, a subsidiary of Toyota’s manufacturing & engineering
headquarters in Erlanger, Ky., shares Toyota’s manufacturing know-how
with nonprofits like Tree of Life Clinic by focusing on process
improvement activities ‘doing more with less’ in a condensed manner.
TSSC’s on-site support typically lasts 3-6 months. The idea is for the
leaders of the nonprofit to learn Toyota’s manufacturing know-how so
they can teach it to their team and become self-reliant.
“This project with Tree of Life has been fulfilling,” Doug Formby,
Toyota Mississippi vice president, exclaimed. “Not only for the team
that worked tirelessly on this project, but for other Mississippi team
members that volunteer their personal time here. It is our intent to
continue this relationship with Tree of Life Clinic.”
Additionally, Toyota provided a $20,000 grant for medications.
The Tree of Life Clinic video can be accessed on the TSSC website at
www.tssc.com. Once you reach this page, please click on the Tree of Life Clinic Video button.
Courtesy of Toyota Newsroom
