I know that many of you want to make things better at your sitemake things safer,
have your chronically ill patients become much healthier, get home on time from the
office consistently, and much more. So, where do you begin?!! I like the answer
given by Stephen Covey in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (if you haven’t
read it yet, I highly recommend it). He says to Begin with the End in Mind. What can
this mean? He states that all things are created twicefirst mentally and then
physically. So, the first step is to have a vision of what you want at your healthcare
site. Do you want to reduce infections 60%-70% if your site is an ICU? Studies at
the Institute for Healthcare Improvement show this is possible. If you are a primary
care physician, do you want to increase the income of your practice 10%-20%, leave
the office on time, and also dramatically improve the health of your patients? A
recent issue of Family Practice Management demonstrates how. If you have primary
contact with patients, do you want to consistently know all the prescriptions that
they take so as to avoid conflict in medication or other undesirable outcomes?
JHACO is requiring hospitals to reconcile medications for all their patients. A May
23, 2006 article in the Wall Street Journal discussed how hospitals are improving in
this area.

The point that I am making is to first have a clear vision of what you want to
achieve. You cannot make any long lasting improvements if you don’t have a clear
and detailed plan. As a builder needs a clear and precise blueprint in order to build
a property, so you too must have a clear vision.

You cannot have an achievable vision, though, without knowing what is possible.
Knowing what is possible will require that you become familiar with some quality
improvement tools. This will take some education on your part or the hiring of
someone with expertise. Don’t fall into the trap of the Management Flavor of the
Month, though; such a pitfall was recently discussed in a column by Carol Hymowitz
in a May 15 article in the Wall Street Journal. She stated that leaders often try
solutions that are popular at the momentLean, Six Sigma, etc. Rather, you should
find the tools from these and other management styles that you and others on the
staff can work with easily or that an expert can easily deploy at your site. The tools
you use should fit your site and the employees there. There are many good tools
available. Be sure to include ones that improve communication among all staff
members and patients. You might want to use a kaizen event, for instance. You
will want to find out how things exist in their present state so you can benchmark
your improvements. This will require some sort of mapping process and basic
statistical measures. Be sure to write a manual of the processes you adopt so that
new staff members have a ready reference on the practices you want to maintain.
These and many other tools can be found on the American for Quality’s web site as
well as the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s website.

If you hire a consultant to help, be sure that they are have a variety of tools
available. American Society of Quality certified quality engineers possess such
tools. Be sure this consultant is willing to guarantee the results the two of you
agree upon if you follow his/her recommendations.

What then, is your first step in creating dramatic improvements at your healthcare
site? Begin with the End in Mind and become familiar with a variety of comfortable
tools.

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

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Six Sigma methodologies aim at improving overall quality by eliminating defects and achieving near perfection by restricting the number of possible defects to less than 3.4 defects per million. Six Sigma methodologies were originally developed for implementation in the manufacturing sector but with time their use has spread to the services sector as well. In the services sector, Six Sigma concepts are used mainly for eliminating transactional errors.

Today, the concepts and methodologies of Six Sigma are increasingly being used in the healthcare industry for improving the quality of services rendered, increasing efficiency, and eliminating human errors that can often prove fatal. However, the use of Six Sigma in the healthcare industry is a relatively new phenomenon as compared to other service industries that have undergone some type of data-supported, systematic, quality-improvement process. With medical and technological advancements, the demand and expectations for improved medical care are continuously increasing. However, due to lack of effective management systems, inefficiency is increasing, which often leads to congested emergency rooms, customer complaints, and lost revenues.

Benefits

Six Sigma concepts and methods enable a healthcare organization to offer improved healthcare services to patients by streamlining business processes. In the healthcare industry, the quality of services rendered depends a lot on human skills, which is often very difficult to measure and control. Six Sigma is effective as it is based on a comprehensive approach that focuses on improving both human as well as transactional aspects of a process. Although implementing Six Sigma concepts in the healthcare industry is a challenging task, it does help in getting quick results.

In the healthcare industry, the factors that determine the quality and efficiency are usually the flow of information and interaction between people. Six Sigma helps in streamlining the flow of information and achieving strategic business results by initiating cultural shifts all throughout the organization. Six Sigma focuses on improving processes rather than just concentrating on the task, which helps in increasing the scope of improvements. It provides the necessary tools and methodologies that help in analyzing and transforming human performance, necessary for achieving significant long-term improvements.

Process

Six Sigma helps in defining a vision for the future, identifying specific goals, and establishing quantitative measures for turning that vision into reality. It helps in formulating goal plans and setting timelines for moving from current performance levels to Six Sigma performance levels. The plans are defined only after documenting their effects on the organization’s work processes’ that may include flow of information, surgical site procedures, handling patients, and others.

The basic requirements for successfully implementing Six Sigma programs are usually long-term vision, commitment, leadership, management, and training. It is important to provide the requisite training to doctors, nurses, and the administrative staff for making them aware about the various concepts and methodologies. The training may initially appear to be expensive, but is often worth the cost when one considers the benefits such as improved quality of services and increased efficiency. It is necessary for employees working in a healthcare organization to develop an understanding about the various Six Sigma concepts. This will help them in integrating new techniques into the Six Sigma processes for improving quality and effectiveness.

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution’s Six Sigma Online ( http://www.sixsigmaonline.org ) offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.

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