Quality improvement should be a system-wide initiative. Many healthcare facilities
think of quality only as it applies to the clinical side. They concentrate on outcomes
defined by accrediting bodies such as JHACO. Many businesses are like this
too. However, the best organizations use quality tools throughout their
organization. I want to show you the benefits of doing so.

As a healthcare professional would you even think of just treating one part of the
body to keep a patient healthy? For instance, do you think that just by concentrating
on the heart that you can keep the rest of the body healthy? Certainly
not! Healthcare professionals know that to keep a body and mind healthy they must
concentrate on the whole body. That’s why we give patients regular physicals.

A healthcare facility or site is much like a human body. All parts much function well
to insure positive outcomespatient health, a good bottom line, and time and staff
to get things done. A hospital is more than just the doctors and nurses. The
administrative staff and all other supporting staff are important too. For instance, in
a recent issue of Quality Progress an article highlighted a change in food delivery
which greatly impacted profit and patient satisfaction. The hospital decided to let
patients order food from a menu much like any commercial restaurant at any time
convenient to the patient and not too unreasonable for the hospital. They
responded to patient needs and wants and saved money doing so.

If your site is a family doctors office, do you think that the only important functions
are those provided by the doctors and nurses? What do you think a patient would do
if he or she got excellent delivery of primary health treatment and prevention but
had a horrible experience with billing? That patient might very well end the
relationship with your facility.

Research has shown that the key to profits is customer loyalty. One of the key
ingredients of customer loyalty is quality of service and product delivered by
satisfied employees. That means that every facet of an organization is important in
delivering a service or product.

So how do you get started?

–Leadership is a key ingredient. Leaders at all levels must support system-wide
quality.

–Gather information on quality improvement ideas from all areas and staff. No
one’s ideas are unimportant.

–Form cross-sectional teams to solve the important problems that you have
identified.

–Gather baseline data about the process as it exits now so you know when you are
improving and by how much. Monetary measures are important.

–Make a detailed plan that all team members can agree upon and educate the staff
about the tools needed to implement the changes.

–Implement the changes and measure your success.

–Make the new, improved methods standard operating procedures.

Many of the ideas above come from Lean Healthcare ideas and other quality
improvement initiatives, such as Baldrige and Six Sigma. The CFO of one local
hospital with whom I spokeMetro Hospital of Grand Rapids, MIstated that Lean
was one their primary tools and that it had made an enormous impact at their
sites. Metro was even recognized recently in a national publication of The Institute
for Healthcare Improvement as a leader in quality.

Implementing quality improvement throughout an organization is a difficult task.
For many, this approach is a radical cultural change. Such changes fail without
commitment from leadership and steady and firm hand guiding the changes. I
suggest that you start small and spread the initiatives methodically throughout your
organization. At each step demonstrate to all the benefits for the organization and
to the individuals. Doing so will ensure that many will buy into the changes and
commit to continuing quality improvement. I know of some organizations, which
have gone through several Lean training initiatives but have failed to maintain it
system-wide for a variety of reasons. They end up losing many opportunities to
improve the bottom line, increase client loyalty, and improve employee satisfaction
in a job well done.

Donald Bryant helps healthcare providers meet their challenges and writes
“Making Good Healthcare Better” a free monthly ezine for healthcare
providers who want to dramatically improve patient health, improve the
bottom line, and make work more rewarding, guaranteed. Go now to
http://www.bryantsstatisticalconsulting.com to get a free article with tips you can
use to start making improvements immediately and to learn more about Lean Healthcare.

Share This