Bringing Home the Gold

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Recognizing accomplishments is an important part of a Lean Six Sigma deployment, both for the honor that it brings to the practitioners and for the visibility it brings to the program. Covidien plc, a $10 billion global leader in healthcare products, has embraced that concept wholeheartedly in its annual Bring Home the Gold competition. The […]

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Improving Personal Health Using Data and Six Sigma

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Four times a year, I donate blood at a local blood bank and receive readings on my cholesterol, blood pressure and pulse. Although donating blood does not improve a personโ€™s health, the regular readings of the vital signs, along with analysis and actions stemming from this data, can be significant in the fight against heart […]

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Reducing Contaminated Needle Sticks in a Healthcare System Using Six Sigma

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Contaminated needle sticks are a risk for healthcare workers. These injuries are frightening because the patient whose blood was pricked into the nurse, medical assistant, lab tech or other healthcare worker can be contaminated with Hepatitis B or C, or HIV/AIDS. Once the blood-borne pathogen exposure has occurred, the employee has to undergo tests to […]

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10 Challenges to Overcome when Deploying Lean Six Sigma in Pharmaceutical Sales and Marketing

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โ€œWeโ€™re different!โ€ Practitioners often hear these words while attempting to deploy Lean Six Sigma. While the phrase is sometimes viewed as an excuse to avoid change, in the case of the marketing and sales function within a pharmaceutical organization, it may hold some validity. This article explores ten reasons why sales and marketing claim to […]

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Embedding Six Sigma in the DNA of Virtua Health

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The success of any change is enhanced by building a culture of alignment, accountability and acceptance. This is evident in the implementation and deployment of Six Sigma at Virtua Health, a comprehensive healthcare system consisting of four hospitals and headquartered in Marlton, NJ, USA. Throughout its more than eight year deployment, the organization has worked […]

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Addressing Six Sigma Concerns from the Skeptics

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Merriam-Webster’s dictionary states, “skepticism implies an unwillingness to believe without conclusive evidence.” Sometimes a little skepticism โ€“ or at least curiosity โ€“ can be a healthy thing. For instance, one should probably not begin taking a new medication without asking a few pertinent questions such as, “What are the side effects,” “How will this interact […]

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Merging Six Sigma and the Balanced Scorecard

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In an era of complexity and contradiction, many healthcare organizations are seeking bold strategies for leading and managing change. While concepts behind the balanced scorecard and core Six Sigma methodologies are not new, a powerful management tool can be crafted through the unification of these two proven strategies. An approach that combines the targeted performance […]

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The Path of Least Resistance: Is There a Better Route?

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Driven by nationwide technologist shortages, an industry-wide focus on quality and rising consumer demand, healthcare is feeling the pressure to deliver more with less. Given this challenging environment, some organizations have come to the conclusion that taking the path of least resistance may not be the best approach. For many, delivering quality patient care is […]

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Framing the Need to Improve Health Care Using Six Sigma

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Before exploring the various ways Six Sigma is currently being used, we should set the stage and understand the challenging environment where this methodology is being put to the test, a relatively small, but growing segment of the healthcare industry. Healthcare today is a vast web of complexity and contradiction. It offers astounding advances in […]

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What To Do When The Low-Hanging Fruit Is Gone

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This article provides an example of how an operational department (like a cardiac catheterization lab) can be transformed from a low sigma level to a higher sigma level, and what that would mean to the overall organization. Patient satisfaction, physician satisfaction, reduced overtime, reduced patient wait times, increased revenues and an enhanced quality of life […]

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Six Sigma…Without The Pain, For Healthcare

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What is clear is that Six Sigma can drive bigger improvements in patient care and cost reduction, and potentially, do it faster. In the handful of hospitals that have successfully implemented Six Sigma, the results are impressive. Hard financial savings in the hundreds of thousands of dollars range per Six Sigma project have been reported. […]

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Leveraging Six Sigma to Improve Hospital Bed Availability

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Located in Lafayette, Louisiana, Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center recently began working with GE Medical Systems to implement Six Sigma as a method for achieving quality and process improvement. Since patient throughput and bed availability are among the organization’s top concerns, the team began by focusing on this issue. Following a process of […]

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Interview With Nick Nauman, MBB At Commonwealth Health

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As one of three Six Sigma Master Black Belts at Commonwealth Health Corporation (CHC), Nick Nauman mentors 35 Green Belts. At the time of this interview, CHC’s team had a total of approximately 180 completed or ongoing Six Sigma projects throughout the institution, focused on a range of issues involving both operational and clinical improvement. […]

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Case Study: Surmounting Staff Scheduling at Valley Baptist Health System

Case Study: Surmounting Staff Scheduling at Valley Baptist Health System

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Finding solutions to staffing issues in the orthopedic unit at Valley Baptist Health System required a dual emphasis on productivity and quality.

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Becoming a Master Black Belt in Healthcare

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A Master Black Belt (MBB) has been trained as a Six Sigma Black Belt and demonstrated proficiency in statistical tools and expertise in leading and teaching others. Within the healthcare organization, the MBB trains Black Belts and Green Belts, helping to select, scope and mentor projects. MBBs also guide the organization in addressing quality from […]

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Statistics Can Reduce Process Variability and Costs in Radiology

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Measurable improvements in radiology added up to greater efficiency and better quality. In this study, staffing was reduced by 14 full-time equivalents, entirely through attrition; identification errors were reduced through bar coding, and processes were improved. A higher sigma indicates a lower rate of defects and more efficient processes. In many corners of the corporate […]

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Issues and Solutions for Today’s Emergency Department

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A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that over the past decade trips to emergency departments (ED) rose 20 percent, while the number of available emergency centers fell by 15 percent. Another study from the American Hospital Association indicated that 62 percent of hospitals feel they are at or over […]

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Adapting GE’s Lessons to Healthcare

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All healthcare stakeholders, from the board on down, want to find ways to make their organizations perform better. Increasingly, healthcare leaders have also realized they must reevaluate their institution’s culture, along with their overall management strategies, to maintain a competitive edge and keep pace with an evolving industry. They’re recognizing that managers must be encouraged […]

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Patient Puzzler: Out-Of-Control Patient Collections

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Ms. Collette Dโ€™Bills, patient accounting, has gathered data related to accounts receivable, entering it to an Excel spreadsheet. In fact, she has several yearsโ€™ worth of data in her Excel files, but has not been able to understand what it means, except to see that accounts receivable sometimes go up and sometimes go down. At […]

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Medical Transcription Six Sigma Case Study

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Today’s industrial black belt typically trains for six months.ย Seventy-five percentย of this training time is spent learning theory, and the balance is spent in practice. Often when the black belt returns to the real world to tackle inefficiencies, he finds that there are no takers for his logic and passionย โ€“ his Six Sigma entreaties fall on […]

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Coronary Artery Bypass Grafts: Six Sigma Breakthrough

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Six Sigma, 6s, is nothing more, and nothing less, than the use of science to solve problems. Scientific evidence that a breakthrough medical solution is genuine is statistical evidence. Though altruism and evidence influence medical treatments, economic pressure drives improvement. Multi-million dollar savings created by “beating heart” or “off-pump” coronary artery bypass outcomes are a […]

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Six Sigma Healthcare Work-out

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GE employees see Six Sigma as “the way we work.” A key component of Six Sigma is the use of Work-out to move from a statistical delineation of a process or quality improvement to a practical solution. Work-out is a tightly designed problem-solving process involving facilitation tools and techniques. Use of this highly structured process […]

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Six Sigma: A Powerful Strategy for Healthcare Providers

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Six Sigma is not for the faint-hearted. It is a challenging strategy to master and execute in for-profit businesses, but even more difficult in the healthcare industry with constraints such as high barriers between the different professional groups, the lack of funds, understaffed and overworked employees, and individualized work procedures that are rarely managed or […]

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HMO Formulary Standardization Six Sigma Breakthrough

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Business Issue All medications are not created equally. Reopro (generic name: abciximab), Integrilin (generic name: eptifibatide) and Aggrastat (generic name: tirofiban) are all platelet-inhibiting drugs used in cardiac care. Each is priced differently. They act on patients in slightly different but clinically significant ways. The key critical to quality issue in healthcare is patient safety. […]

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