Find the handoff bottleneck
Identify the true scheduling bottleneck by comparing queues and effective capacity across handoff steps.
Discharge delays are blamed on clerical staffing, but the longest queue forms before pharmacist medication review between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Identify, exploit, subordinate, then elevate the constraint The common trap is to add people where complaints are loudest. That can increase upstream output while the bottleneck queue grows. Map the handoff Clerks prepare packets, nurses confirm instructions, pharmacists review medications, and transport closes the discharge. A bottleneck must be found in the flow, not in a department name. Read the queues Packets wait 12 minutes for clerks, 18 minutes for nursing, 94 minutes for pharmacy review, and 10…
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