https://medium.com/@mlkristalyn/lean-six-sigma-and-its-use-in-various-occupations-including-health-care-1a94ebf7fed4
This blog is to discuss the importance of Lean Six Sigma and its use in various occupations including Health Care. This blog really beings with a discussion with my husband who is a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. He was certified in a manufacturing field, however, in discussing Lean Six Sigma with him, I decided to investigate its uses in other fields including Health Care.
To start off I will just talk about what Lean Six Sigma is. Lean Six Sigma is a methodology that uses statistical data to drive change within an organization or industry. This methodology follows a very specific process known as the DMAIC process. DMAIC stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control. During the define phase the problem is defined as well as the team that will work on the problem. Also during this phase meetings are held to build things such as XY Matrix which begins to identify the potential root causes for the error. During the measure phase, the true issue is defined in things such as the amount of scrap or waste and the cost of the issue. Thing begin to get real fun during the analyze phase, this is where trials begin to be ran to define the root cause and recreate the issue, in turn finding the problem that is causing the negative outcome. Then we get into the improve phase, this is where fixes begin to get put into place and hypothesis tests are ran to determine if the fix actually fixes the problem and if it is sustainable. Then we move into the control phase, which is where we show that the issues has been corrected and can be controlled.
Today Lean Six Sigma has been used to build upon the use of TQM (Total Quality Management) in Health Care settings. This has allowed for their to be more definition upon hypothesis testing on multiple different factors in the health care setting related to customer satisfaction, primarily in the form of faster processing of data and testing, as well as quicker response to patients needing assistance while under the care of health care facility. Lean Six Sigma has also been used to reduce the turnaround time in laboratories and during clinical research. Following the process of Lean Six Sigma has proven to be effective in better finding the root cause to these issues.
In conclusion, Lean Six Sigma can be effective tool for any industry where process improvement and change is needed. Following the DMAIC process and understanding the statistical tools that come from the hypothesis test analysis completed during the process can be effective in making improvement in efficiency and other wastes within an organization.
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