Strategies for Improving Patient Safety in the Hospital

Published:

The fact that patients are not entirely safe in a hospital is not breaking news. Errors in healthcare delivery were occurring long before the 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine exposed significant gaps in the healthcare system in the United States. The institute’s report, To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System, found […]

Read more ยป

Case Study: Reducing Delays in the Cardiac Cath Lab

Published:

A DMAIC project at New York-Presbyterian Hospital improved throughput โ€“ case start time, room turnaround time and patient prep time โ€“ in three cardiac cath labs.

Read more ยป

Ideas for Achieving Higher Reliability in Healthcare

Published:

As startling as the 1999 report from the Institute of Medicine was – estimating that medical errors may cause 98,000 deaths annually – a new national study indicates the problem may actually be much worse. According to the report released in July by HealthGrades, a Denver-based healthcare ranking group, the number of hospital patients who […]

Read more ยป

Is Healthcare the Next Big Thing?

Published:

I’ve had a lot pf people asking me about healthcare lately. As in, “Now that big corporations and the automotive companiesare reeling, with the stimulus coming and promises of healthcare reform, isn’t it a great time to move out of the manufacturing sector andinto process improvement in healthcare?” Well, it’s true that thereare vast opportunities […]

Read more ยป

Defects in Healthcare

Published:

Last Friday I taught a Lean Leadership class for my healthcare organization. The participants included all levels of support staff, physicians, nurses, anddepartment leaders. They grasped the concepts easily, and we had a lot of fun with the simulation exercise. In the first round, of course, no products made it to the customer. In the […]

Read more ยป

Six Sigma Meets IT at McKesson

Published:

Last Week, Ben Worthen, of The Wall Street Journal, interviewed Randall Spratt, chief information officer at McKesson Corp. McKesson was one of the pioneer healthcare companies to use Six Sigma, starting in 1999 and still going strong today. In the interview Spratt talked about how the use of Six Sigma and technology are making operations […]

Read more ยป

Lean Six Sigma for Healthcare: What Not to Say

Published:

Quite a few Black Belts from manufacturing environments have told me, “I donโ€™t know anything about healthcare, but my industry is in a downturn so Iโ€™m looking for a Black Belt job in a hospital. I figure I can pick up the lingo once Iโ€™m there.” Iโ€™ve also been asked to speak to industrial and […]

Read more ยป

Quest Diagnostics CFO Speaks Lean Six Sigma

Published:

Bob Hagemann, CFO and VP of Quest Diagnostics, recently spoke about the company at the Wachovia Healthcare Conference. During the presentation he touched on Six Sigma. Even after seven years pursuing Six Sigma, Quest Diagnostics is still expanding their deployment. Below are a few excerpts from the presentation: Our program to reduce costs by $500 […]

Read more ยป

Will Medicare Force Hospitals to Go Six Sigma?

Published:

I was driving to pick up my daughter from school yesterday when a story on National Public Radio (NPR) caught my attention. I only heard the end of the segment on the radio, but from what I could tell Medicare was forcing hospitals to change the way they do business by not paying for certain […]

Read more ยป

Six Sigma is Out for Blood!

Published:

Blood Systems Laboratories, a division of Blood Systems, is the second largest blood testing company in the United States (second only to the Red Cross). They launched a Six Sigma program early in 2004. The Blood Systems 2005 Annual Report highlights Blood Systems Laboratoriesโ€™ Six Sigma achievements: โ€œCompleted 18 Six Sigma/Rapid Action Planning (RAP) projects […]

Read more ยป

Six Sigma at Express Scripts

Published:

At the Bank of America, Health Care Conference 2006 in May, Express Scripts gave a presentation that included a few slides about their Lean Six Sigma program. Their value proposition: โ€œTo reduce pharmacy costs, without compromising health outcomes, while maximizing patient satisfaction.โ€ Lean and Six Sigma together are part of how they are giving โ€œvalueโ€ […]

Read more ยป

Help for Physicians

Published:

After writing my recent blog, “Physician Heal Thyself,” I attended a review session for the ASQ certification exam. The subject of physicians came up when we were discussing identification of customers in healthcare. One of the attendees reminded the group that physicians tend to be diagnosticians, looking for a way to fit the patientโ€™s symptoms […]

Read more ยป

Physician, Heal Thyself!

Published:

What makes some physicians so difficult to convince of the need for change? I’m talking aboutphysicians who are extremely unhappy with the current state. They complain to anyone who will listen. They threaten to take their patient volume elsewhere. They tell horror stories about orders they wrote that weren’t filled, wrong items in the orthopedic […]

Read more ยป

How Do We Change in Healthcare?

Published:

I have spent the last couple of months banging my head against a wall trying to figure out why one group of employees at one of my implementations just canโ€™t align with a Lean way of life. Each time we 5S an area, it gets changed. Each time we try to implement standard work, it […]

Read more ยป

Six Sigma at Cardinal Health

Published:

Cardinal Health has been busy with Lean Six Sigma. Their second quarter earnings release highlighted their progress to date: โ€œInitiating more than 100 operational excellence projects, bringing the total number of ongoing projects to 200. The company is on-track to train nearly 300 โ€œblack beltsโ€ during 2006 to manage company-wide lean six-sigma initiatives within manufacturing, […]

Read more ยป

Six Sigma and Healthcare – An Oxymoron?

Published:

How many healthcare processes have you measured that are 2.0 Zst or higher at the start of the project? Iโ€™ve never had one of these – most of mine have started at below 1.0 or in the negative Sigma range. In every one of my projects, Iโ€™ve had to use lean tools to get where […]

Read more ยป

Six Sigma at New York-Presbyterian Hospital

Published:

New York-Presbyterian Hospital (NYP) began their Six Sigma initiative in 2003. Today they are ranked 7th in U.S. News & World Reportโ€™s Best Hospitals Honor Roll. Before implementing Six Sigma they were ranked 14th. Ed Craven, Director of Innovation Strategy at NYP said Six Sigma deserves some of the credit for jump in the ranks. […]

Read more ยป

Six Sigma at Baxter Healthcare

Published:

The article Six Sigma, the Baxter Way at PharmaManufacturing.com features an interview with Allen Harmon, the director of operations at Baxterโ€™s Biologics facility in Hayward, California. The question/answer session reveals details on how this Baxter facility is using Six Sigma and Lean in their operational excellence program. Noted in the interview, Harmon states that Baxter […]

Read more ยป

Six Sigma at Quest Diagnostics

Published:

Quest Diagnostics are early pioneers of Six Sigma in the healthcare industry, implementing the methodology in May 2000. Since then they have supplemented the program with a healthy dose of Lean and DFSS. Their progress to date is well documented on their website and in annual reports: โ€œSince May 2000, with the launch of the […]

Read more ยป

McKesson Corporation

Published:

McKesson is the largest pharmaceuticals distributor in the United States. While they do not manufacture drugs or supply healthcare services, they are the leading provider of supply, information, and care management products to the entire healthcare industry. In the words of McKessonโ€™s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, John Hammergren, โ€œMcKesson is helping transform healthcare into […]

Read more ยป

Six Sigma in the Healthcare Industry

Published:

The Healthcare Sector includes the following Fortune 1000 industries: Medical Products & Equipment, Pharmacy and Other Services, Healthcare-Medical Facilities, and Wholesalers-Healthcare. The Healthcare-Insurance industry is included in the Insurance Industry List. Fortune 1000 Healthcare Companies practicing Six Sigma: Bausch & Lomb Baxter International Becton Dickinson Boston Scientific Cardinal Health McKesson Medtronic Quest Diagnostics St. Jude […]

Read more ยป
To top