Hi,
I’m a psychologist at a community mental health agency. In terms of six sigma and healthcare, first two important distinctions need to be made between service providers (e.g. hospitals, clinics, etc.) and manufacturers of healthcare related equipment. I can’t speak for the latter, although certainly they are able, and I presume some do, use six sigma as any other manufacturing firm might do.
As to the service providers, I do agree that there is a certain amount of “We’ve always done it this way before” mentality. Health service providers are more accustomed to a “Utilization Review” process of looking at individual cases and asking if the patient received all of the services which are medically suggested by symptoms, etc. In the age of managed care, this is often put in the reverse, asking, “Did the patient get services that weren’t medically necessary (that the insurance co. paid for)?” However, some providers are slowly adapting internal Process Improvement or Continuous Quality Improvement methodologies, including six sigma, into their operations. Often this is in response to accrediting bodies such as the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, which include standards for Process Improvement as a condition of accreditation.
Thus, while there is great room for improvement, I do not share the pessimistic attitudes expressed by the first respondent to this chain of posts!
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