Lean Six Sigma Applications in Healthcare

Making progress despite the challenges

Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from the new book, Innovating Lean Six Sigma, by Kimberly Watson-Hemphill and Kristine Nissen Bradley.

Like every company, healthcare businesses do their work through processes, and any process can be studied and improved using basic lean Six Sigma methods. Figure 1 shows a process view of a healthcare company, where the core value stream is built around having a patient arrive, receive treatment (or not), and then leave. The treatments vary, and how the entrance and exit take place will change from patient to patient and facility to facility, but the basic flow of entrance–treatment–exit is universal.

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As with any other business, if the core value stream of a healthcare organization is to function effectively, there have to be many support processes. These include the administrative functions that allow the hospital to run effectively and the supply chain operations that provide the needed supplies and equipment.

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As the author of Lean Six Sigma for Hospitals, I attend conferences such as the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (ihi.org). An exciting new trend I spotted at last year's conference is the focus on ZERO HARM. 

The IHI estimates that one out of every two patients suffers some sort of preventable harm. Memorial Hermann hospitals in Houston have focused on achieving zero harm...no hospital acquired infections (HAIs), blood transfusion complications, and so on. Many of its hospitals have gone 12-24-36 months without an HAI. HAIs kill an estimated 99,000 patients a year. Similarly, South Carolina's hospital association gives out Zero Harm awards to hospitals achieving zero HAIs for 12 months or more.

When a healthcare system embraces ZERO HARM as their mission, a lot of the infighting about what is the right way to do things falls away in the face of scientific evidence. Systems, procedures and checklists replace gut feel. The answers are out there. All we need are physician leaders to pull the healthcare system forward at high speed before the costs bankrupt the country. Lean Six Sigma can solve most of these problems quickly. And you don't need to be a black belt to do it. A handful of tools will solve most healthcare related problems with delay, defects and deviation. Learn how easy it can be here: qimacros.com/training/lean-six-sigma-for-healthcare-webinar.

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