Using Rapid Cycle Improvement (Plan, Do, Study, Act) to Design a Scalable Appointment Scheduling System for Complex Oncology Clinical Trials at an Academic Cancer Center.

Purpose: This study's purpose was to optimize the efficiency of and to design a scalable research scheduling team to meet the growing demands of an academic cancer center with increasing clinical trial accruals.

Methods: The Plan, Do, Study, Act improvement methodology was deployed to increase the efficiency of research scheduling, to reduce non-value-added (NVA) activities, and to reduce cycle time to meet takt time. In the Plan phase, voice-of-the-customer interviews were conducted.