Selected staff participated in a second Kaizen Event in early August. You may recall that “Kaizen” is a method to accelerate process improvement in any setting. This Kaizen focused on the specifics of the workflow for the Call Center Certification Program, e.g., when, where and how data is collected. To streamline the process, the team reviewed Parts 1 and 2 of the demographic questions currently required for completion by each applicant, with an eye toward eliminating duplicative questions or questions that have no bearing on the accreditation process. Of the 88 questions, the team recommended the elimination of all but 16. Of the remaining 16 questions, eight currently exist in SalesForce, four will be transmitted to AccreditNet, which then leaves only eight questions to be completed by the client. This streamlined approach translates to significant time savings for our clients!
The second area that the Kaizen team focused on was a review of the newly developed self-assessment tool which can be used by the client to prepare for the accreditation review. The tool includes the standards and elements of performance that are organized in such a way as to “step” the client through the accreditation review process. The team suggested some additional design features to further enhance the flow and readability of the document.
The third focus area included a review of AccreditNet to determine if auto-generated notices to clients could be supported by the application. These client notices included things like reminders of when items are due, confirmation of information received and next steps in the process. The team was divided into groups to develop the specific notices for each of eight critical process steps.
Next steps include the formation of a sub-group from the Kaizen team for implementation of the recommendations, testing of the developed process and, finally, product launch.
The Quality, Research & Measurement Department would like to thank the Kaizen team for all their work on this important project. The team members are:
| Deborah Smith | Karen Watts |
| Peggy Reed | Bruce Karnes |
| Donna Merrick | Shionna Harris |
| Derrick Wilder | Aaron Turner-Phifer |
| Maggie Cornett | Kurt Acker |
