All News
(Commonwealth Fund: New York) -- How do patients feel about the care they receive in U.S. hospitals? A study in the October 30 New England Journal of Medicine, supported by the Commonwealth Fund, shows that while patients are generally satisfied with their care, satisfaction levels aren't as high…
Measurements of patient care continuity should encompass all of the components of health care delivery—structure, process, and outcome. “Structure” in health care delivery refers to the way a health care entity organizes itself and sets up operations. Health care structures include elements such…
Part one of “To Root Or Not To Root,”presented a dilemma that many managers face all too often. Regardless of approach, does a problem warrant a full-blown root cause analysis? A scan of the comments to part one indicates that root cause analysis has different meanings to different people. Some…
One of my favorite movies is a dark gangster movie starring Joe Pesci entitled "8 Heads in A Duffel Bag." Pesci, a mob courier is hired to transport the heads of eight murder victims to a mafia boss to prove that the “hits” had in fact taken place. Unfortunately and comically, the duffel bag…
In the world of marketing and branding, sticking out like a sore thumb isn’t necessarily bad, advises brand innovation specialist Chandran Dharmarajan, a co-founder of I-morph, a marketing innovation consultancy based in Singapore. Dharmarajan, who has worked for more than a decade with Unilever…
(FDA: Rockville, Maryland) -- To learn about the development of global initiatives to ensure the integrity of the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain, join regulatory and industry representatives from at the PDA-FDA Pharmaceutical Ingredient Supply Chain Conference, December 3-5, 2008 at Loews…
(HHS: Washington) -- As part of an ongoing strategy to address the food safety issues in China and the United States, and to share ideas to address global food safety, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) opened its first office in Beijing, China, on Nov. 19, 2008. The U.S. Department of…
From an antacid to a new cancer treatment, every drug must be proven safe and effective in controlled clinical trials before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows it to be sold in the United States.
When federal law first required controlled clinical trials in 1962, most people…
(HHS: Washington) -- Last year, the United States imported more than $2 trillion worth of products, from roughly 825,000 importers, through more than 300 ports of entry. All projections indicate that this volume will continue to rise sharply over the coming years as the scale and complexity of…
(SSA & Co.: New York)-- Shrink, a measure of the difference between the amount of goods a company should have on hand and its actual inventory, cost United States retailers more than $40 billion in 2007, according to SSA & Co. However, by changing the way they approach the problem of…
(ASQ: Milwaukee) -- The American Society for Quality (ASQ) is hosting the 2009 Lean Six Sigma Conference, March 2–3, 2009, in Phoenix. The conference will teach professionals the skills they need to sustain a lean Six Sigma culture at their companies.
This year ASQ will offer its largest…
Innovation Template
Owner: ______________
Date Submitted: ________________
New Product/Service Name: _____________________
Description: (what it is, how it works, how we monetize it):
Market Opportunity (Target market, market size…
Today’s hyper-competitive business environment is creating a need for even more new products, new services, and new processes. Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) offers a generalized and effective approach for designing new products and services from the ground up. One of the more popular DFSS…
By the time you read this, the amazingly long U.S. presidential election will be over. All U.S. citizens will be wandering around aimlessly bumping into objects, pressing their hands to the sides of their heads as the indignation poisons slowly leave their bodies, leaving them with a hangover-like…
(The Joint Commission: Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois) -- Beginning Jan. 1, 2009, under a new Joint Commission policy, laboratory accreditation decisions will no longer immediately affect hospital accreditation decisions. This policy establishes comparability in the way that a laboratory with an…
(ISO: Geneva) -- When trying to describe the taste, smell, or feel of a product, a universe of terms and sensations will come to mind. This can be problematic when comparing products through sensory analysis. A new International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard will reduce this…
Lean theory suggests that the possibilities for quality improvement exist everywhere. Rarely does that concept translate to a damaged corrugated box in a warehouse—but it should. The cost of damaged packaging, particularly cardboard containers, is very significant in bottom-line costs (damaged…
Jodi Ullman glanced at her watch: 10:25 a.m. She pushed back from her desk, stood up, and stretched—after first peeking out the door of her office toward the cubical maze to make sure no one was watching. She’d been staring at the screen of her laptop for two hours, poring over the latest…
(Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services: Washington, D.C.) -- As the beginning of the annual election period for the Medicare Prescription Drug Program nears, many seniors and their caregivers are in the dark about how the program works and how to make the most of it. This is something Esther…
(Press Ganey Associates Inc.: South Bend, Indiana) -- By analyzing patient satisfaction data representing 1.5 million patients and 1,158 hospitals across the nation from January 2007 through June 2008, Press Ganey Associates Inc. found a dramatic upturn in patient satisfaction, strengthening the…
A well-respected surgical group requests a new surgical device that they swear will revolutionize how surgery is performed in your hospital. The price tag is well into seven figures, with significant annual maintenance and training costs. A competing hospital is advertising to consumers that they…
(AHRQ: Rockville, Maryland) -- The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act (Patient Safety Act) authorized the creation of patient safety organizations (PSOs) to improve safety through the collection and analysis of data on patient safety events. By providing privilege and confidentiality, PSOs…
(National Quality Forum: Washington, D.C.) -- To support consumer engagement and improved quality in health care, the National Quality Forum (NQF) endorsed guidelines for consumer-focused, internet-based public reporting. These guidelines will assist report sponsors to present information about…
(WCBF: Chicago) -- The winners for all categories and the special awards were announced at the Global Six Sigma & Business Improvement Awards Gala Dinner on Oct. 15, held at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center, in Orlando, Florida.
Mark Pigott, chairman and CEO of PACCAR received…
(Wal-Mart Stores Inc.: Beijing, China) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. took the next step in its sustainability journey by hosting an unprecedented gathering of more than 1,000 leading suppliers, Chinese officials, and nongovernmental organizations (NGO) in Beijing, China. Wal-Mart outlined a series of…
