Ellis Medicine is a 438-bed community and teaching healthcare system serving New York’s capital region. With four main campuses, five additional service locations, more than 3,300 employees, and more than 700 medical staff, Ellis Medicine offers an extensive array of inpatient and outpatient services. In 2013 Ellis made a commitment to change the way things get done at the century-old institution.

The main goal was to improve quality of care and financial strength by identifying more efficient processes and cost savings. Kristin May, director of organizational performance and innovation, leads the project and focused her attention first on building an internal team to apply principles from lean management and Six Sigma.

From dynamite to Dyno-mite

The first move was to send a couple of bright, young lean leaders to a public Six Sigma course at a dynamite facility in Connecticut to learn about the methodology. It didn’t take Angelo Paglialonga and Christine Waghorn long to bridge the gap between explosives and healthcare, and complete a project on laboratory blood-specimen turnaround time (TAT) at Ellis Hospital with savings estimated over $600K annually.

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