Lean Six Sigma for Hospitals

Proven strategies for applying Lean Six Sigma to the healthcare industry—and getting practical, sustainable results in as few as five days

Lean Six Sigma for Hospitals explains how to use tested LSS methods and tools to achieve the goals of better, faster, and cheaper healthcare. These strategies follow the patient from the front door of the hospital or emergency room all the way through discharge—examining key aspects of patient flow and quality—and also follow the trail of billing and collections to discover major leaks in cash flow. The book emphasizes both the clinical and operational sides, so the “three demons of healthcare”—delay, defects, and deviation—can be reduced.

Using Lean Six Sigma, the healthcare system could cut the annual tab for healthcare in half, and return every hospital to profitability. Industry leaders like Virginia Mason and the Mayo Clinic have already shown that it’s possible to get better, faster, and cheaper healthcare using the tools of Six Sigma. Their stories are included in this book. A companion website features practical, free downloads of Lean Six Sigma reference cards, action plans, and Excel macros for quick and easy implementation of the concepts.

Lean Six Sigma for Hospitals shows how to:

• Reduce preventable patient harm by 50% or more
• Reduce patient time in the Emergency Department by 50% or more
• Reduce or eliminate the need for ambulance “diversions”
• Reduce turnaround time in hospital labs by 50% or more
• Optimize bed management in the hospital
• Reduce rejected, appealed and denied claims by 50% or more
• Increase revenues by 10% or more by being better, faster, and cheaper

Practical, in-depth coverage:
Faster, Better, Cheaper Healthcare in 5 Days; Pioneers—Virginia Mason, Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic; The Universal Improvement Method Focus—Improve, Sustain, Honor; Faster Hospital in 5 Days; A Faster ER, OR, Lab, Radiology, Nursing Unit in Five Days using Lean; Economies of Speed; The 7 Speed Bumps of Lean; The 5 S's; Common Measures of Flow; Lean Tools; Spaghetti Diagrams; Value Stream Mapping; A Faster ER in 5 Days—Patient Turnaround in 1/6th the Time; A Faster Lab in 5 Days Case Study—Reducing Turnaround Times by a Third in Five Days; Faster Medical Imaging in 5 Days; A Faster OR in 5 Days; Faster Bed Management—Changing the Paradigm; Faster Nursing Unit in 5 Days; Better Hospital in 5 Days—Reducing Defects and Mistakes in the ER, OR, Imaging, Nursing Unit; A Cheaper, More Profitable Hospital in Five Days—Reducing Operational Defects and Lost Revenue; Case Study: Reducing Denied Claims by ＄400,000/month in Five Days; Is There an Improvement Project Lurking in Your Data? Data Mining with Excel; Using the QI Macros to Analyze Your Data; Key Quality Measures Joint Commission—Core Measures; Heart Failure; Surgical Infections; Nursing Quality; Patient Satisfaction; Pain Control; Financial and Operational Measures; Sustaining Improvement Process Flowchart; Control Charts for Sustaining the Improvement; Reduce Variation Choosing a Control Chart; Laser-Focused Process Innovation Focusing the Improvement Effort; Voice of the Customer; Speak Your Customer’s Language; Critical to Quality Indicators (CTQs) SIPOC; A Balanced Scorecard; Making Lean Six Sigma Work Formal Network v. Informal Network Linear vs Circular Causes; Use SWAT Teams; Risk Free Way to Implement LSS; Can LSS Kill Your Company?; Conflicting Goals; Honor Your Progress