Denver Peak Academy

Donald Bell points out the areas within the Office of The Medical Examiner’s (OME) Case File System that could be improved via a value-add analysis.

Donald Bell Facilitates the value-add Analysis for the OME team.

Continuous improvement is hard but worth it. Just ask the Office of The Medical Examiner (OME). For years, like most agencies of the City & County of Denver, the OME felt their case file process could improve and deliver more value to its customers more efficiently.

For example, customer wait times for case files could take approximately 3.5 days. 25 percent of case files requested by customers were not found the first time, and 5,000 3×5 index cards were used per year to archive case files through a dewy decimal like system.

Galena Brown Compares the future state process (goals) against the current state process.

Good Afternoon, First, this innovation looks great! I loved that you kept it small and manageable by improving a space you control; the back of your truck.  I have attached a copy of your A3 for future reference. Also, this innovation qualifies you to receive a Peak Academy Green Belt. Congratulations!  When you get a chance, please pick your Green Belt up from Joi Moton, Stephanie Hellman or Anne Carter. If you have any other innovations, questions, comments, or concerns about the Denver Peak Academy, please let me know. Lastly, remember to SUSTAIN the improvement and keep the area organized: Kaizen! Best, Jerraud Coleman | Associate Process Improvement Specialist Budget and Management Office | City and County of Denver 720.913.5532 Phone | 303.885.9687 Cell jerraud.coleman@denvergov.org Connect with Denver’s Peak Academy on & Barbara Criter build a future state of the Case File System that eliminates the waste identified in the system’s current state.

Moreover, while the investigator was approving the release of a body, there was a notable amount of motion, overproduction and waiting. The Certificate of Death (COD) was manually filled out and transfers of jurisdiction were signed with wet signatures even though the ability to sign with e-signatures was available.

However, with the spirit and tools of continuous improvement, the OME identified over eleven ways to improve this cumbersome process. For example, get rid of the 3×5 cards to reduce defects, rework and overproduction, save hard dollars ($450) on printing costs, and streamline the process of locating archived case files. Repurpose computer equipment from around the office and city, in order to create a station/secure computer system (Kiosk) at the front window and deliver more value to customers that need to fill out case file requests. Start signing transfers of jurisdiction with e-signatures, instead of the traditional wet signature, in order to save clerical time and resources (e.g. paper).

Donald bell, Steven Castro & Karen Jazowski discuss the motion and transportation identified in the OME’s case file system.

Steven Castro builds the future state of the Case File System while realistically trying to improve as many pain points as possible.

These innovations and seven others are scheduled to be fully implemented around the third quarter of 2016. Furthermore, these innovations are expected to save the OME roughly $2,313.43 per year in hard savings, $311,314 per year in soft savings and millions in customer wait time.

Improvements worth implementing are identified and built as a team. While they seldom happen overnight, they have a great and lasting impact on the customers and enterprises alike. These are the improvements with the greatest chance of fixing what bugs us and when we fix what bugs us, we have less bugs.