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Healthcare Management vocabulary · Patient Flow and Capacity

Bottleneck

Meaning in healthcare management, with examples

/ˈbɑːtəlnek/nounCommon term

In healthcare management, bottleneck means: A point in a process where work slows down or piles up because demand at that step is greater than its capacity.

In Turkish: darboğaz, tıkanma noktası

How it is used

Used when analysing patient flow: radiology, the discharge pharmacy or the porter service can all become bottlenecks. Managers identify, remove or ease bottlenecks; improving other steps will not help until the bottleneck is fixed.

Example sentences

  1. The real bottleneck is not beds but the time it takes to get a CT report.

  2. We mapped the whole process and found two bottlenecks in the discharge pathway.

Common collocations

  • identify a bottleneck
  • remove a bottleneck
  • major bottleneck
  • bottleneck in the process
  • patient flowThe movement of patients through a hospital or health system, from arrival and assessment to treatment, transfer and discharge, ideally without unnecessary delays.
  • capacityThe amount of care a hospital or service can provide with its beds, staff, rooms and equipment in a given time.
  • lean managementAn approach, first developed in car manufacturing at Toyota, that improves processes by removing waste, such as waiting, unnecessary steps and errors, while adding value for the patient.
  • discharge planningPreparing early for a patient's safe exit from hospital, including medicines, follow-up appointments, equipment and support at home.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Patient Flow and Capacity

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.