Decatur Memorial Hospital Continues with Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 24 September 2008 | 12:02 am
A couple of years ago, I featured one Six Sigma project of Decatur Memorial Hospital. That was about how the hospital used a Six Sigma approach to analyze the hospital’s medication-use process, and then looked for automation approaches to help streamline the process.
You would wonder how they Decatur has been doing since it launched Six Sigma in 2001. Well, it’s our luck as iSixSigma shares with us the Decatur journey with Six Sigma:
- 2001 - launched Six Sigma
- then trained Green Belts, Black Belts, Master Black Belts
- toward the end of 2003 - Six Sigma a project on reducing nosocomial infections in three key operational areas – intensive care, intermediate care and the cardiovascular unit
- in August 2004 - Six Sigma project on on the reduction of surgical site infections
Filed under: Six Sigma Organizations, Healthcare, Six Sigma, Decatur Memorial
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St. John’s Mercy Medical Center Goes Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 16 September 2008 | 11:41 pm
When executives at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center in Creve Coeur noticed patients in wheelchairs lining the halls as they waited for physical and occupational therapy, they thought there must be a better way. Continue reading…
Indeed, there is. To improve the situation they used the principles of Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma.
The results:
- improved quality
- reduced waiting times
- shorter lengths of stay for patients
- improved outcomes
- a lot of other secondary effects
Filed under: Benefits and Savings, Six Sigma Organizations, Healthcare, Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, St. John's Mercy Medical Center
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Using Six Sigma in Cardiac Cath Lab
Posted by: meikah | 16 September 2008 | 11:14 pm
Heartsite.com defines cardiac catheterization or Cath as “a specialized study of the heart during which a catheter, or thin hollow flexible tube, is inserted into the artery of the groin or arm.” Continue reading…
It is a highly specialized and very important procedure. And for a hospital to do something to improve processes in this kind of lab is big on my book.
New York Presbyterian Hospital recently embarked on a comprehensive initiative to improve throughput in the cardiac catherization labs at the Columbia University Medical Center, New York Weill Cornell Medical Center, and Children’s Hospital of New York-Presbyterian sites.
At the New York-Presbyterian, the focus was on the various sub-cycle times impacting throughput – including case start time, room turnaround time and patient prep time. As a result of these multiple projects, the hospital gained 312 hours of procedure time without incurring any additional capital expense. An overview of one project conducted at Children’s Hospital of New York demonstrates how the Six Sigma DMAIC methodology provided the framework and tools to raise departmental productivity by improving first case start times.
Filed under: Benefits and Savings, Six Sigma Organizations, Healthcare, Six Sigma, New York Presbyterian Hospital
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Six Sigma and Health Analytics Together Drive Health and Lower Cost
Posted by: meikah | 4 September 2008 | 9:46 pm
In next week’s Integrated Care Summit, Jim Dolstad, SHPS‘ chief actuary and VP for integrated health metrics, and Martha Whiteman, health improvement strategy director for Cummins Inc. will speak about Uniting Health Analytics with Six Sigma Methodology to Drive Health and Lower Costs.
Perhaps, next to manufacturing, it’s the healthcare industry that is going full blast into Six Sigma. This is an excellent development indeed!
StreetInsider reports:
This ongoing project demonstrates the value of a healthcare provider working with a company to drive behavior change that leads to a healthier employee and lowers cost by using DMAIC Six Sigma methodology. DMAIC, the acronym for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control, is a basic component of the Six Sigma methodology - a way to improve work processes by eliminating defects. Dolstad and Whiteman will share details of this approach as well as the result of the project to date.
Filed under: Six Sigma Organizations, Healthcare, Cummins, Six Sigma
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When Six Sigma and other Improvements Come from the Leadership
Posted by: meikah | 25 August 2008 | 8:44 pm
Inspired by Six Sigma and Toyota model of management, Windber Medical Center President F. Nicholas Jacobs has mandated quality healthcare.
One good thing about this is that the Johnstown, PA government is also helping out the healthcare industry in the area by launching a three-pronged approach to improve quality in healthcare:
- Pushing quality through public reporting.
- Enforcing quality through the False Claims Act.
- Incentivizing quality through payment reform.
Supplementing this approach is the “pay for performance” for physicians and hospitals. In other word, the government will be rewarding people for good performance. Read more…
In a related story, because of what Mr. Jacobs did, he was credited for being innovative. Here are a list of improvements that he has done:
- Expanded emergency and obstetrics departments
- Construction of “the ultimate education center”
- Transforming the small town hospital into a showcase of state-of-the-art medicine and holistic alternatives
- Extensive training for medical practitioners
- Focus on patient control and preventive medicine
When improvement comes from leadership, a lot can be achieved.
Source:
The Tribune-Democrat
Filed under: Benefits and Savings, Deployment, Healthcare, Innovation, Quality, Six Sigma
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Lean Six Sigma Improves Efficiency at U.S. Oncology, Inc.
Posted by: meikah | 12 August 2008 | 9:33 pm
In a press release, U.S. Oncology, Inc. is proud to claim that the company’s increased productivity is a result of their Lean Six Sigma initiatives.
The most glaring proof is that Six Sigma allows U.S. Oncology to expand patient volume by 80,000 in three years. And one example of their success include:
Growth in annual network volume from 550,000 patients in 2005 to over 630,000 patients currently as a result of successful development and expanded marketing and sales efforts, combined with our focus on increased productivity supported by lean six-sigma programs.Read more…
So, how is your Lean Six Sigma deployment going?
Via: iSixSigma News
Filed under: Benefits and Savings, Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma Organizations, Deployment, Healthcare, Six Sigma
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Six Sigma and Lean at Good Samaritan Hospital
Posted by: meikah | 30 July 2008 | 11:35 pm
For Good Samaritan Hospital in L.A., “good isn’t good enough. Aim Higher, Work Smarter and Do it Better.”
That is their mantra and they’ve lived with it. How?
Through Six Sigma, Lean, and other change management techniques. The hospital started with Six Sigma in 2001, deploying projects for:
- pacemaker billing and reimbursement
- length of stay for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI)
- use of Omnicell non-narcotic
- medical record retrieval
- room availability cycle time,
- lab supply management.
All projects have been successful.The elements of Lean were brought in to eliminate waste in the process steps and is also successful.
Filed under: Benefits and Savings, Six Sigma Organizations, Deployment, Healthcare, Six Sigma
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Six Sigma Reducing Medical Errors
Posted by: meikah | 23 July 2008 | 11:35 pm
I’ve said this over and over that if I had to list the top 10 industries that should have zero defect, the healthcare or the pharmaceutical industry would be on that list.
Good thing there are quality methodologies, like Six Sigma, that can reduce errors. Take for instance, the medical errors. In an article on HealthLink, three initial projects on reducing medical errors were successful because of Six Sigma. These are:
- IV drug infusions - errors and discrepancies were improved by standardizing drug concentrations, developing tables to improve the accuracy of drip calculations.
- Patient Controlled Pumps for Administering Pain Medications - this area was improved by standardizing processes and training the involved personnel.
- Laboratory turn-around time - this aspect was improved by improving on software and interface issues and the pneumatic tube system, and training Black Belts.
*Photo from Stock.Xchng
Filed under: Benefits and Savings, Healthcare, Six Sigma
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Web Presentation: Reducing Patient Risk From Prescription Instruction Errors – A Six Sigma Approach
Posted by: meikah | 18 June 2008 | 9:48 pm
Where do you think medical malpractice start? I think it starts from the giving of prescription. Here in our local pharmacies, especially Mercury Drugstores, you will sample photos of prescriptions with matching labels and brief explanation in the cashier area or counters.
To me this is a good information campaign. This tells me though that customers have come to them with false or erroneous prescriptions.
Thus, you shouldn’t miss this 2008 Quality Institute for Healthcare Web Presentation! It will tackle erroneous prescription instructions.
The background:
North Mississippi Medical Center discovered an unacceptable level of errors in its new prescription instructions for discharged patients. A Six Sigma project team focused the DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, control) approach on these errors. They then developed an innovative metric that reflects patient-centered risk, under the coaching of a Creative Healthcare Master Black Belt.
The presentation is delivered by two Six Sigma Black Belts – Michael O’Dell, M.D., and Jonathan Andell. O’Dell is a family practice physician and Chief Quality Officer at North Mississippi Medical Center—2006 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient. He is also the director of NMMC’s family medicine residency program. Jonathan Andell is the associate partner with Creative Healthcare USA—a recognized leader in healthcare quality and performance improvement. He specializes in the technical, organizational, and interpretative aspects of modern quality management. Prior to joining Creative Healthcare, he spent 15 years at Motorola where he became one of the first certified Six Sigma Black Belts at Motorola University’s Six Sigma Research Institute.
Source:
ASQ Store
*Photo from morgueFile
Filed under: Deployment, Healthcare, DMAIC, Six Sigma, ASQ
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Is Six Sigma Even Good Enough in Healthcare?
Posted by: meikah | 12 June 2008 | 12:00 am
Lean Healthcare Exchange asked this question: “Is 99.9% Good Enough in Healthcare?” To me it is an intriguing one, because when you talk of healthcare, you are dealing with people’s lives. So I asked, Is Six Sigma Even Good Enough in Healthcare?
I agree with what the post over at LHE implies: that 99.9% is not good enough. Despite the human factor, there should be no room for error or defect in healthcare. This was emphasized in one of their care provider orientations.
One of our slides asks if we can promise 100% reliability with the following: no patient misidentifications, no medication errors, no wrong patient, site/side surgery, no unnecessary tests/treatments and no sponges left inside patients. In a group of the usual 20 or so orientees, there are at least a couple who are certain that we cannot promise those things 100% of the time, even though we have robust, standardized processes to prevent each one of these potential errors.
Last week, one of the country’s headliners was the death of 25 infants in Ospital ng Makati (Hospital of Makati), caused by neonatal sepsis. Some of the known causes of neonatal sepsis are high-risk deliveries like premature births or teenage pregnancies, lack of prenatal care, dirty or unclean delivery area and facilities such as incubators.
I’m sure the hospital has been careful about infections in their environment. It was just not thorough enough or the system in place has not made provisions to have a zero defect.
As the post says:
It would not be very comforting if we expected that ventilator to operate correctly only 99.9% of the time, especially if we didn�t know when the 0.10% (or 86 seconds/day) might happen.
So…they are to remember, �Process, process, process.� Learn the process and follow the process, without diversion, without workarounds, every patient, every time, and we can prevent errors.
One good thing about Six Sigma is that it’s more than just 99.9% because it primarily deals with the tools for achieving 3.4 DPMOs, and sustain it.
*Photo from Stock.Xchng
