Six Sigma in Skilled Nursing Facilities
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lalita.
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August 24, 2009 at 2:05 pm #25781
While I find quite a bit of information related to six sigma application and case studies in healthcare they are mainly confined to hospital environments. Where can I access the same on skilled nursing, assisted living and senior care field? Thanks.
0August 26, 2009 at 11:59 am #62435Hello Elvis,
If you cannot find any information as pertains top your exact situation, it might be that projects of this kind have not been shared or publicised. My advice to you is if you have exhausted your search, don’t worry about it. What is more important is that you understand the methodology. That never changes, regardless of the project or setting – then try it for yourself.
Good luck,
Patch0August 26, 2009 at 12:27 pm #62438Thanks for the response, Patch. My objective is to persuade top leadership (C designations) to understand and adopt, even on a limited, pilot level basis the impact Six Sigma can make to the delivery of quality care through the most efficient processes. Hopefully, in the process we could save a few jobs. Otherwise, they will continue to reduce head count as the simplest way to lower cost of doing business. Since there is an absolute absence of knowledge regarding six sigma and lean, the only way I can even spark their interest is by citing case studies based on actual deployment.
0August 26, 2009 at 12:38 pm #62439Ok. been there. If you don’t find anything, base your arguments on the benefits (ROI, improved customer satisfaction, reduced waste, etc). There is plenty of litterature on that and I have summarized a few as related to healthcare for my own campaign here (you can find it here).
Also, you might want to check out the Alberta or BC health system, I can’t recall which, but they were doing a pilot project on lean in long term care facilities…hope this helps.
Patch0August 26, 2009 at 5:35 pm #62441Will do and many thanks for the leads and recommendations, Patch.
0September 6, 2009 at 10:12 pm #62449
Eugene JacquescoleyParticipant@Eugene-JacquescoleyInclude @Eugene-Jacquescoley in your post and this person will
be notified via email.Elvis,
This is a very interesting area you are persuing. SNF’s are challenging environments with limited resources. So I understand if the primary stakeholders have no understaning of what you are attempting to accomplish. May I suggest a tool on stakeholder management which may assist. http://www.maxwideman.com/issacons4/iac1440/index.htm
http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/stakeholder-management.html
Keep me posted.
Eugene Jacquescoley0September 8, 2009 at 1:51 pm #62451Thank you, Eugene, for your recommendation. I will conduct an assessment of the tools available that facilitate acceptance. It is distressing to experience daily the severely outdated mindsets at the C-level that operate from their solid silos. Their terribly umimaginative approach to management offers the perfect environment to deploy SixSigma/Continuous Improvement . If only I could sell it to the CEO and the equity company that owns us. Thanks, again.
0September 16, 2009 at 12:11 am #62458
Eugene JacquescoleyParticipant@Eugene-JacquescoleyInclude @Eugene-Jacquescoley in your post and this person will
be notified via email.Elvis,
Keep me posted. This endeavor is very interesting.
Eugene0September 16, 2009 at 8:19 pm #62463Will do, Eugene. Thanks.
0September 21, 2009 at 6:26 pm #62469
Eugene JacquescoleyParticipant@Eugene-JacquescoleyInclude @Eugene-Jacquescoley in your post and this person will
be notified via email.Elvis,
As I mentioned before, Six Sigma is a new animal in long-term care. You could possibly check with your respective city and state agencies that conduct annual inspections of long term care facilities in your state. But, it is highly unlikely that the state level has adopted this method of quality assurance.
Regards,
Eugene0September 22, 2009 at 12:32 pm #62470You are right, Eugene. Another possible starting point could be to identify successful deployments in hospital envirnments, find parallel processes in long-term care and by adapting the methodology demonstrate Six Sigma’s effectivity. There are, of course, the common business processes such as Procurement, Financial administration including A/P, Customer Service, HR and so on where Lean+Six Sigma could be deployed.. An additional challenge is in cornering the CEO next time he visits his office here and when he is not surrounded by other C-designated leaders. I am confident I can get him to entertain a formal presentation in his Washington, D.C. office. I need to get lucky.
Thanks, Eugene, for your suggestions and helpful hints. I’ll be glad to keep you posted as events warrant.
Regards,
David
0November 18, 2009 at 7:32 pm #62509Don’t know a whole lot about Six sigma but I guess somewhere in the entire process one would be required to look into nurses availability ( or nurse shortages in the area ) as also the fact that skilled nursing facilities rely on Medicaid revenue mainly – so their revenue cycle should be interesting to study.
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