Reduction of Rehabilitation Waiting Time
Workflow analysis and design that cut municipal rehabilitation waiting times from 15 days to 4 days — with zero cases exceeding targets at project completion.
Brøndby Municipality · Denmark
The Training Centre wanted to reduce the waiting time for municipal rehabilitation under the Health Act §140. They needed a solution that would be durable and long-term, as opposed to simply employing more staff. The challenge was structural: workflows were inconsistent across teams, there was no shared framework, and the process from referral to start had too many handoffs and unclear ownership.
Sammetric performed a tailor-made workflow analysis and design process. · Uniform workflows across all rehabilitation teams. · Better working environment — clearer roles and ownership. · Focus on continuous improvement embedded into governance. Measured outcomes: · Average waiting time for start-up reduced from 15 days to 4 days. · 0 cases with exceeded waiting times at project completion. · 72% of all rehabilitation plans started within 10 days. · Median waiting time reduced from 10 days to 4 days.
Background
Brøndby Municipality’s Training Centre was operating under pressure from the Health Act §140, which governs municipal rehabilitation for citizens following hospitalisation. Waiting times had grown to an average of 15 days from referral to first session — well above the target.
Leadership recognised that hiring more staff was not a sustainable answer. The underlying issue was structural: workflows varied between teams, responsibilities were unclear at handoff points, and there was no systematic way to track or govern the process.
Our Approach
Sammetric conducted a full current-state workflow analysis across the rehabilitation teams. This involved structured observations, staff interviews, and process mapping to identify where time was being lost, where responsibility was unclear, and where duplication was occurring.
From this analysis, we facilitated a co-design process with the teams themselves to build a future-state workflow that addressed each friction point. The result was a unified rehabilitation pathway with clear ownership at every stage.
We then supported the implementation phase, establishing governance routines and team rituals to ensure the new workflow was maintained and continuously improved after our engagement ended.
What Made the Difference
The key insight was that the problem wasn’t capacity — it was clarity. Staff knew their work, but the handoffs between teams lacked structure. Once we established a shared language and clear ownership at each stage, the time wasted at transition points disappeared.
The 72% target of plans starting within 10 days was achieved not through more resources, but through better-designed processes and team alignment.
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