Lean and Lean Six Sigma in Healthcare

The application of Lean and Lean Six Sigma in medical care needs to understand how these tools and methods translate into patient-centered patient care processes. Once applied, the possibilities are endless

With Lean Six Sigma at Morton Factory Hospital in Clearwater, Florida, patient satisfaction has improved by more than 50%, emergency department's service has been shortened by 21% and quality costs have recovered by over $ 4 million.

Iowa State Cedar Rapids Medical Center Emergency Department Medical Director Dr. Mark Pospisil

Lean Six Sigma is adopted by many governments in the medical field. Since Six Sigma functions by reducing defects, it should be the best and most promising way in the field of health care. These flaws may include the difference between life and death. With the help of Lean Six Sigma these fatal mistakes can be eliminated and patient's health and safety can be maintained. I've heard about agile and lean implementation in various industries, but it is completely new to introduce this concept as a hybrid framework for government departments and projects. Under my supervision, a similar approach has been successfully implemented in small construction projects in India.

The Six Sigma method and the Lean method are two entities, Toyota introduces a lean manufacturing method to minimize manufacturing waste, Motorola Six Sigma advocates to reduce defects. How will these methods help to improve the projects and departments of governments in developing countries? Lean Six Sigma's philosophy is to reliably reduce waste and quality in all steps of the process. This way of thinking is thought to change the behavior and way of thinking of the organization. Perspective transformation guarantees that people are getting better and better. This method is also useful for other important projects such as roads, railways, construction, mining. Various kinds of lean methods such as Visual Flow Graph (VSM) and 5s system have proven to be effective methods for various government projects in many developed countries.

Lean Six Sigma is a quality improvement method that combines Lean and Six Sigma in two established ways. Basically, lean was born in Japan's Toyota car in the 1950s for the purpose of improving efficiency. Six Sigma, which started in Motorola in the 1980s, was superior in terms of consistency. Lean Six Sigma has also been successful in healthcare, which has been successful in both commercial and industrial environments. By way of example only, researchers using the Lean Six Sigma method succeeded in shortening the stay at ICUs for patients using long term ventilators by 24% (29 to 22 days) . Cost per patient decreased by 27% ($ 66,335 to $ 48,370).