Lean Six Sigma is a quality tool or strategic business management that arose from a depth study of Motorola Corporation, USA in the year 1979. It is being used in the many sectors of industry in order to improve quality process by determining and eliminating causes of failed processes. So mainly, Six Sigma is all about:
• Reducing variation in every process
• Eliminating errors in every process
Lean Six Sigma in healthcare industry entails deep knowledge of how the tools and methodologies are being applied to be able to translate the needs of the patients and improve the patients’ care. Once Lean Six Sigma has been relevant to healthcare, the following will be possibly achieved:
• Improve patients’ satisfaction
• Reduce emergency department’s length of service
• Monetary recovery due to quality improvement
• reduced number of prescription instruction errors
As stated, Lean Six Sigma focuses on getting rid of defects. In the industry of healthcare, these defects can be referred to as the difference between light and death. In using this quality tool, life-threatening errors can be avoided increasing patient’s safety.
Lean Six Sigma utilizes the so called Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control or the DMAIC process. It is a five step methodology to process improvement. In healthcare, one should focus on patients’ experience to ensure processes consistently deliver desired outcome.
The acronym DMAIC stands for:
D – Define a problem or the room for improvement.
M – Measure performance of each process.
A – Analyze the process in determining the root causes of poor performance; to know whether the process can still be improved or should be redesigned.
I – Improve the process by acting on root causes.
C – Control the improved process to hold the gains.
Aside from increasing the satisfaction of each patient, Health care organizations pursue six sigma level of operation as it declines their costs or expenses.
Six Sigma is a methodology that intensively analyzes the health care organization’s processes and assesses if needs and further expectations of the patients are being delivered. It helps identify what is critical to the quality of the service to the patients. It aims to measure whether requirements of each patient are met.
When a patient is dissatisfied, this is considered as a defect. Each complaint from the patients is a big factor to affect quality service. The goal of Six Sigma is to create a “virtual perfection” from the patients’ and physicians’ point of view.
Just like any measuring tool, Six Sigma is a data-driven approach that reveals the root causes of each defect that may eventually lead to its termination. The moment that these defects are gone, costs decline and customer (patient) satisfaction levels up. And since Six Sigma is a tool for continuous improvement, it eventually leads to doing a business rather than just a quick fix to a certain problem.
Six Sigma is about achieving helpful outcomes. Health care organizations applying six sigma, experience significantly greater revenue through decreased costs or expenses and further improved quality.