Six Sigma/Lean in HealthCare and Medical Centers
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amoravar.
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March 2, 2010 at 12:48 am #53323
DraperParticipant@Don-DraperInclude @Don-Draper in your post and this person will
be notified via email.Hi everyone!!
I have been deploying Six Sigma for a few years but new to the Healthcare arena.
I would like to discuss the projects I have worked on so far, and also would like to hear any ideas of projects others have worked on.
Thanks and welcome everyone to this new awesome forum!
Don Draper
0March 11, 2010 at 7:00 pm #189707
de ClercqParticipant@gsdeclercqInclude @gsdeclercq in your post and this person will
be notified via email.Hi Don,
Like you I have just been pulled into the healthcare arena. My background has been in lean supply chain and business function integration for electronics companies. I was about to start a seperate topic asking if anyone on this forum can recommend some liturature on L6S for healthcare case studies and/or any healthcare specific advanced tool and techniques. As we are in the same boat, I will just add it to your thread.
I see there is lot of liturature on L6S for healthcare. Most of which seems generic. I would like to avoid any redundancy on the basics of DMAIC, DFSS and Lean and get straight to those areas that differentiate healthcare L6S projects from other sectors. Stand out case studies would be great.
All suggestions are welcome,
Gideon de Clercq
0March 12, 2010 at 3:37 am #189713
Andrew BanksParticipant@BBinNCInclude @BBinNC in your post and this person will
be notified via email.Hey Guys:
Also new to healthcare (~2 years). I work at an 700-800 bed academic medical center. Our projects range from back office (billing, reimbursement, call center, etc.) to operational (bed assignment, service delivery, nutrition & food service, patient education) to clinical (improved outcomes in plastic reconstructive surgery, reduction of “never events” (nosocomial infections, adverse drug events, drug errors, identification errors, etc.)
A few points come to mind based on my limited experience:
1. You are VERY close to the customer. Few industries have so many folks in direct contact with the Big C.
2. LSS is new to most people in healthcare – you’ll spend a LOT of time explaining what you’re doing.
3. LSS is not a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. It is only slightly less powerful & rigorous, but it can be a hurdle for some nonetheless. Besides, we can’t hardly ask some nurses to wash their hands and others not to, can we?
4. Healthcare is a fee for service industry. Be aware that eliminating “unnecessary” tests and procedures can actually REDUCE revenue. It is still the right thing to do, but requires a STRONG case and lots of change management with stakeholders who will lose $.
5. Physicians and hospitals are not always reimbursed the same way (MD based on services provided regardless of the time required, hospitals are often capped by contracts or even flat rates based on diagnoses). This is not necessarily a bad thing as it encourages MDs to ensure that their patients are ready for discharge, and hopsitals are incentivized to be efficient with time and resources. However, it means that the two sides have a fundamentally different perspective.
I look forward to any discussion – as long as it does not include a decision tree for sitters :laugh:
0March 12, 2010 at 5:01 am #189716
DraperParticipant@Don-DraperInclude @Don-Draper in your post and this person will
be notified via email.BBinNC,
Thanks for your reply, but there wasnt much useful content there, did you read my question or where you just posting to entertain yourself (again)?
Don Draper, MBA, PMP, CMBB, BSIE
0March 12, 2010 at 5:08 am #189718
Andrew BanksParticipant@BBinNCInclude @BBinNC in your post and this person will
be notified via email.Hi everyone!!
I have been deploying Six Sigma for a few years but new to the Healthcare arena.
I would like to discuss the projects I have worked on so far, and also would like to hear any ideas of projects others have worked on.
Thanks and welcome everyone to this new awesome forum!
Don Draper
Maybe I did miss the question in your post. By the way, questions are usually followed by this punctuation mark “?” I just thought we’d connect. Maybe not.
:S0March 12, 2010 at 5:11 am #189720
DraperParticipant@Don-DraperInclude @Don-Draper in your post and this person will
be notified via email.No I would rather not “connect” with someone who writes pompous replies to other people on the forum.
If you dont know what I am talking about read all your posts.
Quit reading between the lines, and just read the lines.
0March 17, 2010 at 12:10 am #189786
Ken FeldmanParticipant@DarthInclude @Darth in your post and this person will
be notified via email.Speaking of pompous….
“Don Draper, MBA, PMP, CMBB, BSIE “
Sorry, not impressed despite the array of acronyms and letters. Wow, listing your undergraduate degree….guess OK in healthcare but in reality, who cares.
0March 17, 2010 at 2:48 am #189790
DraperParticipant@Don-DraperInclude @Don-Draper in your post and this person will
be notified via email.Darth please!
Come on now you couldnt read the sarcasm there?
0March 17, 2010 at 4:06 am #189792
Quality BelieverParticipant@Quality-BelieverInclude @Quality-Believer in your post and this person will
be notified via email.Hi Don,
How you doing,
I was just browsing and saw ur message.
I am also a part of healthcare quality and new to healthcare as well.
It’s great that you want to share/discuss projects. Its a good approach
ok I am ready, so whats our 1st topic/project. and discussing with you will help me/us to get some new prespective and insight into the problems faced in ur area and the solution u come up with because at the end of the day we are doing for patients(customer).Cheers
Quality Believer0March 17, 2010 at 4:27 am #189793
DraperParticipant@Don-DraperInclude @Don-Draper in your post and this person will
be notified via email.QB,
I’m working on medication process redesign, inventory reduction ( OR inventory is borderline obnoxious) , using processmodel simulation software to increase ED patient throughput, admitting throughput etc.
Also have completed multiple Kaizens to increase ADE’s …Would be happy to talk to you more in depth?
Where are you located?
-Don
0March 21, 2010 at 1:55 am #189865
Quality BelieverParticipant@Quality-BelieverInclude @Quality-Believer in your post and this person will
be notified via email.Hey Don,
Thanks for the reply.
Wow. seems like you are sitting on a pile of projects (or big Y’s)… its great.. anyway I can see multiple projects here, and all these topics are very much a big improvment area in healthcare. In our area as well there are lot happening in all these areas, and will be good to know/share whats happening in your area and how u making a change.
Quality is my passion so I am very open for discussions.So whats your Big Y & your project Y .
Anyway I am based in New Zealand. How bout u?
Hope to hear from you soon.CheersQB
0April 19, 2010 at 5:35 am #190003
GerryMember@smithgerryInclude @smithgerry in your post and this person will
be notified via email.I have recently join this site and this is nice idea for providing us information about Six Sigma Medical Centers. Would you mind to let us know more about this? Thanks for your any input.
0May 2, 2010 at 10:24 pm #190105
Quality BeliverParticipant@Quality-BeliverInclude @Quality-Beliver in your post and this person will
be notified via email.Hey Don,
Thanks for the reply.
Wow. seems like you are sitting on a pile of projects (or big Y’s)… its great.. anyway I can see multiple projects here, and all these topics are very much a big improvment area in healthcare. In our area as well there are lot happening in all these areas, and will be good to know/share whats happening in your area and how u making a change.
Quality is my passion so I am very open for discussions.So whats your Big Y & your project Y .
Anyway I am based in New Zealand. How bout u?
Hope to hear from you soon.CheersQB
0June 16, 2010 at 9:28 am #190345
tarkerMember@willamtarkerInclude @willamtarker in your post and this person will
be notified via email.The advantages of the welding of health care organizations are, first, that the quality of the results in terms of mistakes and errors improvement. The second is that the time taken by the whole process significantly improved because the number of patients who may be in the process of increasing productivity is, or increase the flow of the process.
0June 24, 2010 at 2:45 pm #190372
VasekarParticipant@omqualityguruInclude @omqualityguru in your post and this person will
be notified via email.Dear ,
I may suggest your looking into opportunities to reduce the costs of Energyin Healthcare .
Reduction in Total Energy required/patient could be One of the CTQ.
Probably sharing my experience in Utility /Infrastructure area may add some value to your initiative. Thanks.0June 24, 2010 at 4:23 pm #190373I’m a “Process Improvement Coordinator”, trained as BB, working mostly in the manufacturing plant area. I’ve had an opportunity to direct some of my efforts to the plant industrial nursing area of this plant. Thus far I’m 80% done with improving their inventory and their problem expirations dates , and have begun with introducing 5S.
Has anyone else experience with applying 6S in the industrial nursing (not hospital, not pharm company)? Right now I do not know enough of their processes to suggest meaningful projects, nor do they know enough about 6S to suggest projects to me. I just see a fairly long time of smaller projects to gain familiarity, and am hopeful that the experience/input of others might shorten the initial inroads by listing meaningful project that have been completed. — An the answer is yes, I have searched sites, but have not found anything regarding industrial nursing.
0August 9, 2013 at 7:25 am #195617
Steve WildMember@spwild47Include @spwild47 in your post and this person will
be notified via email.Hi..
Just checking in..
I am a Pharma Hospital Account manager…i had responsibility for three 1A guideline recommended products critical to some of the first Quality and P4P driven protocols implemented in major academic centers in a major metropolitan market…I have seen version 1.0 fail due to lack of “Acceptance and Accountability” and version 2.0 of these protocols succeed due to EHR enforced “Acceptance and Accountability”. I am working now in a rare disease with high hospitalization rates and massive care gaps…calling it 0.5 sigma would be very generous..and looking to help hospitals improve..
Looking forward to networking with other Healthcare L6S types..
Steve Wild0August 15, 2013 at 9:33 am #195646
Brian CooperGuest@mdartagnanInclude @mdartagnan in your post and this person will
be notified via email.I am currently consulting in the Healthcare field and can tell you that processes within the healthcare field are in complete chaos. You can forget using any statistical tools until the processes are stabilized. It is no wonder that there are not more fatalities from process failures. I was walking with a nurse through a patient hand off yesterday and she started to take the blood pressure of a patient just coming from surgery. The nurse assistant had already started to take the reading when the surgical nurse yelled, “No! You can’t take blood pressure in the right arm. The patient has a history of severed artery in that arm.” I am seeing this kind of thing every day. Good luck to those who have the task of improving medical processes. The amount of work to be done is astonishing!!
0August 15, 2013 at 10:27 am #195647I’m entirely sympathetic with the sentiment expressed by the previous poster. In many cases, nurses and junior doctors in the medical profession have been stretched beyond all reasonable limits! Perhaps the ‘nursing assistant’ mentioned had not received adequate training or had been recently abused by an overbearing, arrogant, abusive consultant. (I received regular reports about this through my wide network of contacts!)
0August 15, 2013 at 10:52 am #195648
Chris SeiderParticipant@cseiderInclude @cseider in your post and this person will
be notified via email.Why would any consultant be abusive to process participants like nursing assistants?
0August 15, 2013 at 11:02 am #195649
Brian CooperGuest@mdartagnanInclude @mdartagnan in your post and this person will
be notified via email.If you were referring to me as the abusive consultant, that wasn’t the case at all. I was “Standing in the Circle” or simply observing. The process of setting up the patient in the recovery room was simply chaos. There was no standardized process for doing something that is repeated hundreds of times per week. Every time seems like a new process. The ER has one set of steps that they seem to follow (even these vary by shift and day) and the OR has another (again not standardized. The fact that these simple tasks are not standardized adds to the fact chaos, pressure, and the amount of work that has to be done.
0August 15, 2013 at 11:13 am #195650
Chris SeiderParticipant@cseiderInclude @cseider in your post and this person will
be notified via email.I was referencing my colleague’s story by @Andy-U
One can use statistics to show how much variation is in the process and show shift to shift differences. Standardized processes are always best.
0August 15, 2013 at 11:26 am #195651
BrianParticipant@mdartagnanInclude @mdartagnan in your post and this person will
be notified via email.I was replying to @Andy-U
Your post didn’t come up until I finished my comment.0August 15, 2013 at 11:39 am #195652
Chris SeiderParticipant@cseiderInclude @cseider in your post and this person will
be notified via email.The challenges of blogs :)
@mdartagnan0August 15, 2013 at 12:55 pm #195655@cseider Chris, I’m only reporting what many nurses and junior doctors claim. As I don’t work in the NHS, I can’t really give specific reasons, but if I was to hazard a guess it might have something to do with the government’s austerity measures. In other words, when are gross staff shortages and things go wrong some consultants blame staff instead of the hospital administrators/government. (By way of contrast, the real culprits – the casino bankers – only get a slap on the wrist!
0April 18, 2014 at 6:24 pm #196867
BMGI IndiaParticipant@BMGIIndia1Include @BMGIIndia1 in your post and this person will
be notified via email.Lean and/or Six Sigma Lean applications in healthcare industry require the understanding of using tools and application of methodologies to translate the benefits to the people responsible for patient care. If applied with right strategy, the improvements are endless.By using Lean Six Sigma, Hospitals have improved patients’ satisfaction by 50%.
0April 21, 2014 at 8:37 am #196873
amoravarGuest@amoravarInclude @amoravar in your post and this person will
be notified via email.Hola, Trabajo en servicios de Salud , y tengo formación en el tema, desde mi punto de vista lo más importante es entender los procesos para entender la variación de lo que ocurre en el día a día.
No se puede trabajar en servicios de salud como en Manufactura porque los problemas son multifactoriales, cada unidad (paciente) tiene características independientes y si a eso le suma la falta de estandarización en los procesos el tema se vuelve un caos y muy complicado para abordar por eso primero conocer el proceso y limpiarlo.
Added by iSixSigma editor:
Via Google translate: Hello, I work in health services, and have training in the subject, from my point of view the most important thing is to understand the processes to understand the variation of what happens on a day to day.
You can not work in health care as in Manufacturing because the problems are multifactorial, each unit (patient) has independent characteristics and if we added the lack of standardization in processes theme becomes chaotic and very difficult to address by that first know the process and cleaning.
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