About this Presentation
Marcin Ludyga presents a healthcare case from the Stanislaw Sakiel Burn Treatment Center in Siemianowice Slaskie, Poland, focused on improving the flow of patients through the hospital’s hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO) unit. The hospital operates a multiplace chamber serving up to 16 patients and provides 24/7 hyperbaric emergency service. The initial operating problem was not simply demand: sessions could run with empty seats, patients could wait up to 24 weeks for an opening, absences created additional sessions and staffing costs, and missed capacity put the hospital’s contract performance at risk. The deck reports an average of about 11 absent seats per day, representing $3,303.96 in daily lost session value. The team first analyzed the hospital-side undesirable effects and then asked a second question: what is the client’s problem? The patient view revealed practical barriers to attending a long course of therapy, including logistics, other responsibilities, uncertainty about the benefit, and the requirement to attend 15 or 30 sessions. This shifted the design from merely filling empty seats to creating a more patient-centered offer. The HBO chamber was treated as the constraint and the change focused on exploitation and subordination. The workflow introduced a visible session schedule, education in the waiting area, monitoring of no-show reasons, staff TOC training, and two patient buffers. When an absence was reported in advance, an ambulatory patient from the buffer could be called to replace the seat within two hours; for an unexpected absence, a qualified hospital patient could fill the place within about ten minutes. The reported results are substantial: waiting time fell from 24 weeks to 1-2 weeks, sessions were reduced to a maximum of one free chamber seat, and average monthly throughput more than tripled. The result slide also shows a +212% increase in average monthly throughput and notes that performance recovered after the pandemic, supporting the claim that the solution was sustainable. The case demonstrates how constraint focus, buffers, Thinking Processes, and patient perspective can work together to improve both flow and service.
What Will You Learn
To help you get the most value from this session, we’ve highlighted a few key points. These takeaways capture the main ideas and practical insights from the presentation, making it easier for you to review, reflect, and apply what you’ve learned.
How a healthcare flow problem that appears to be “no-shows” can be reframed around the true constraint — the hyperbaric oxygen chamber — and the financial and patient consequences of leaving constrained capacity unused.
Why the patient perspective matters: long treatment regimens, logistics, other responsibilities, and uncertainty about value can create attendance barriers that operational fixes alone do not remove.
How exploitation and subordination were translated into practical workflow changes, including a visible session schedule, education, monitoring, and two patient buffers that rapidly replace planned and unplanned absences.
The reported impact: waiting time fell from 24 weeks to 1-2 weeks, sessions had at most one free chamber seat, and average monthly throughput more than tripled, with the result slide showing a +212% increase and recovery after the pandemic.
Instructor(s)
Marcin Ludyga
Marcin Ludyga is a skilled healthcare manager trained at the TOC+ Management Institute and a certified Jonah. As the Chief Learning Officer (CLO), he supports hospital commission in the Process of On-Going Improvement (POOGI). Marcin works with a team of about 10 elite healthcare managers, focusing on enhancing patient care and operational efficiency.